Borderline Galaxies: The Post Sequel
by ARCCaptainFordo
Summary: After the events of the Trooper to Hunter, the Vault Hunters, the Raiders and the Republic found themselves thrown into a treaty. Now what will they do, and what new and old enemies lurk around the corner. This will follow DLCs and some other story elements. MayaxAxton (Max), Zer0xGaige (Gaige), OCxAthena (Tracena - As suggested by Anarkyrie42).
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

**Nyles' Perspective**

Admiral Nyles Kote looked at the prisoner in his interrogation room, his jacket, shirt and trousers were torn and he had two bacta patches on his arm and leg. Nyles had considered leaving him bleeding until he agreed to get the rest of Hyperion to surrender, but he wasn't a monster. He took a breath to calm himself lest he kill the man when he walked in and he stepped out into the corridor after stepping out of the observation room.

He walked toward the entrance and nodded at the two Clone Trooper guards at the entrance. Nyles also had several squads of commando droids on standby, turrets in the walls and several quick reaction Special Operation Teams ready to blow anyone who dared to try to spring the prisoner to pieces. The two guards saluted him; Nyles returned the salute and waited for a moment as the door in front of him opened with a hiss.

The prisoner looked straight at him, "The infamous Admiral Kote, we meet at last."

He kept his tone neutral, "Handsome Jack, I can't extend the same enthusiasm for you."

"Well, I tend to have that effect on people. Tell me, how long do you think that you're going to be able to keep me here? You should have killed me when you had the chance."

"I am aware of the existence of the 'New-U' system, I wouldn't dream of giving you an opportunity to squirm out of my grasp."

Jack smiled "Well, at least you aren't half the idiot I thought that you were. Why don't we get to the point, there's only one reason that you'd want me alive; you want me to get the rest of Hyperion to surrender."

"And neither are you. So, since you know what I want I'll spare you the speech."

"Well, I don't care; I'm not giving it to you. My men will fight you till their dying breath, heck; they might even pay your girlfriend a visit."

Nyles sighed, it seemed that the Raiders hadn't dealt with the mole in Sanctuary as of yet. He smiled however, he had just pissed off the scariest person on the ship "Oh, you mean this girlfriend?" He asked Jack, smiling as Agent Helena Deviss stepped out from out of the shadows of the interrogation room. She stepped forward and smashed his head into the table.

"Funny, I was about to say the same thing, except the Vault Hunters already got to her" she snarled.

"Please, you don't scare me. I'm Handsome Jack, hero of Helios, savior of Pandora."

She cracked her knuckles, "Well, you obviously don't know me. Believe me; we're going to get very well acquainted." Nyles smiled and left the room, as he did he could have sworn that he heard screaming. That had to be her best record yet.

Nyles headed for the elevator that would take him back to the security station that preceded the bridge. After meeting the security requirements, Nyles activated the Holocom to Jango Fett. The device activated showing the waist up image of Jango Fett "'Alor, calling you as planned."

"Ah Nyles, have you captured that chaakar?"

"Yes sir, Agent Deviss is working on breaking him now."

"And?" asked an expectant Jango.

"Well sir, I already heard screaming when I left the room."

"That must be her fastest record yet."

"My thoughts exactly, what's the word on our permanent fleet?"

"I managed to scrape up two older Venators, and a single Nebula-class."

"That's more than I expected."

"It should do fine; I don't think they have any ship that should be a match for a fleet like that. Have you set up the communications arrays? After all this we don't want to lose contact with the base here."

"The garrison bases' comm arrays are all functioning; I'm on my way down with Data to check the one in the Crimson Raider's base."

Jango shook his head, "I forgot how much you loved tinkering, get it done. I'll get back to you about when your reinforcements will reach you. Come back quick though, that old chaakar Palpatine is starting to get antsy."

"Is that all 'alor?"

"Yes Nyles, that'll be all, Fett out."

**Tracyn's Perspective**

Tracyn barely recognized Sanctuary anymore; the Republic Engineers had transformed it from a humble mining vessel to a flying fortress. Powered by an improved Hypermatter Reactor, protected by a Phalanx-class shield generator and armed with AA and AG Baradium Missile Batteries, Electromagnetic Plasma Cannons and a quartet of heavy mass drivers, it was a sight to behold. This was of course not counting the total of eight gunships that could be launched from it, its complement of AT-XT Walkers and two upgraded AT-TEs. Sanctuary was also home to the Crimson Raider Alpha Squadron now flying MAAT/G gunships, the smaller, troop bay lacking version of the MAAT. He was surprised that this was all done while they had gone after Jack in Hero's Pass.

He looked at the Crimson Raiders decked out in an upgraded version of their old armor, complete with a shield generator powered by rechargeable batteries that lasted several days. They were also carrying the PX-15S Carbines, PX-15A Battle Rifle, PX-15 Sniper Rifle System, PX-17 Plasma Pistol and the PX-20 Plasma Repeater. While Hyperion had them outgunned earlier, the tables were now turned. Tomorrow he and Blitz would set out to ensure that the first prefab garrison base was set up in the correct place. The first few locations on his mind to take back would be Opportunity, the Space Port near the train station where they first met each other and the rail network itself.

He walked over to the one of the four Landing Pads that surrounded the flying city where a gunship was waiting for Blitz and him. He saw Blitz standing in the cabin, one hand on a handhold, the other on his rotary cannon. "Come on, let's get this done in time for the celebration."

"Didn't want to stick around for Tina's game or the interrogation of the Hyperion interrogator ner vod?"

"The others have the interrogation covered, and besides, what do you or I know about kid's games. She'll just have to manage without us."

Blitz nodded as the gunship door closed and it lifted off, heading toward the sight of the 21st Expeditionary Legion's first base. The sight of the base was the old resting place of Sanctuary. Tracyn began to run over the safety measure they had put in place to make sure that it was a safe base location. Republic Engineers had filled the lower end and the sides of the cavern with duracrete and then reinforced with Duranium.

"Tracyn, take a look at this!" Tracyn looked out of the viewport and saw a Phalanx Frigate hovering over the site of the base, the prefab base itself being held to the underside by magnetic locks. The frigate began lowering the base into position. Tracyn could see the base in all its glory. The internal hangar bays, the communication array capable of reaching any outer rim comm relay, the Quad Disruptor Defense Towers, the Missile Batteries and of course, state of the art shield generator. That list didn't even begin to scratch the surface, and it didn't even surprise him, it was a Republic Fortress-class Prefabricated Garrison Base after all.

From up here in the gunship he could see Engineers erecting huge duracrete walls in case the shields failed. The old city walls too were being shored up; new turrets were being added onto them. The old bridge that led to the city was being rigged with explosives and a backup energy bridge being put into place. Tracyn smiled, they were in business.

**Eden-5 Abandoned Farm House**

Leo walked around with a Dahl Assault Rifle in his hand, ex-engineer or not, he could take care of himself. The rifle had recoil stabilizers, laser sights and incendiary armor piercing rounds and weighed almost nothing; it was one of his proudest creations; the Dahl Special Applications Battle Rifle Extended, or SABRE for short. He couldn't see anyone nor had the perimeter sensors picked up anything. But one could never be too sure these days.

"My turn, Leo" said his wife Jemma, walking up behind him. "You've been up way too long."

He just grunted. "I really hope that Gaige is safe."

"Leo you know that she would call us if she could."

"I know. Did our friend in Dahl call back?"

"No, that line is compromised; he said that he'd contact us again when he had a new one set up."

"She's surrounded by all those misfits and psychos."

"I think we know one of those misfits. Remember Gaige's childhood idol, that ex-Crimson Lance Assassin, if I'm not wrong she's the one that assassinated the undersecretary."

"What undersecretary, our undersecretary; the Dahl undersecretary?"

She let out a small laugh, "You know any other undersecretaries?"

"Hmm, I feel even less happy about her company now. I wonder what she's doing now."

"Well, whatever she's doing, I'm sure she's having fun."

**Nyle's Perspective**

Nyles stepped off the gunship, intending on checking the new upgraded Crimson Raider's HQ. Precisely he and Data were here to make sure that all the sensors, communications systems and remote controls for various systems were working correctly. He began walking toward the new HQ, the tall control tower shaped structure in the center of Sanctuary that it been moved to. The housing too had been made more modular over the past few days, with people moving in and out of temporary housing until the engineers could get them working better.

While it made for less unique buildings it meant knowing exactly where your enemy could come from and it also meant having better line of sight. Well at least he had brought in Aruetii design input, just like on the living quarters of the _Guardian_, so it was more comfortable. It was definitely a far cry above what the citizens, Raiders and Vault Hunters previously lived in.

He smiled as he thought of one of the older Mandalorians giving him a lecture on Mando utilitarian interior designing, but if he was honest, he was going to have to say that he appreciated the comfort of Aruetii interior design. Little did Sanctuary's citizens know, their walls were made of Duracrete and lined on the outside with Plasteel. It certainly made them less of a structural weakness.

As he neared the entrance, he remembered that droid, Claptrap, since he last encountered it the technicians on the _Guardian_ had given some of his old memories back to him, so that he could provide any information about Hyperion that he had. A side effect of this was that he now that he was a Vault Hunter, and insisted upon being given a gun. Of course, no one was foolish enough to give him a working firearm, he was given a Dahl repeater that lacked its firing pin. The door at the entrance opened for him and he stepped in walking toward the elevator past the office of Patricia Tannis, who insisted on remaining on the first floor. He stepped in and punched the floor on which the command center resided.

As he got off the elevator he was met with a strange sight; Lilith, Brick, Mordecai, Claptrap, Gaige, Roland and Michael sitting around the improved Holo table that stood in the center of the room. Tiny Tina was standing up while the others were sitting in various positions. Nyles had met Tina when Brick brought her to Sanctuary to see the "ARMY OF AWESOME". Gaige and Lilith seemed excited, while the others were a mixture of indifferent or terribly bored out of their skulls in Mordecai's case. "The world is on the brink of going boom-boom. This is our most desperate hour. Unless we make a stand, here and now, we gonna die. Now…Roll for initiative!" Tina rolled several dice across the table.

Brick picked up one of the dice "What's initiative?"

Lilith answered "It says which order we attack in."

Brick punched his palm "I punch the initiative!"

"What's goin on? I wasn't paying attention" said a disoriented Mordecai, whose statement was accompanied by a screech from Bloodwing.

Nyles cleared his throat "So, I hope we aren't interrupting something, but Data and I need to check the sensors, communications and other systems."

Lilith nodded "Go right ahead."

Tina turned to him "But it would be so much AWESOMER if you two would join the game! SO WHAT YOU WAITING FOR SHORTY, JOIN THE GAME!"

Nyles shrugged, "Well I would if I knew what the game was."

Just then Commander Sharp walked in, "Sir I," he stopped and looked around the room. "Perhaps this is a bad time, I'll come back later."

Data turned to Sharp, "Hey commander, want to join in?"

Sharp looked at Data and him confused, "What game?"

Lilith sighed, "Tina, why don't you start over."

"Ahem. Welcome fine ladies, to your first session of the most coolestest game in the world: Bunkers and Badasses. As your Bunker Master, I will be spinning today's tale of fantasy and - "

Mordecai cut her off, "Wait, why the hell are we playing this kid's game?"

"Oh maybe because SHUT THE HELL UP MORDY - "

Lilith reprimanded Tina for her outburst "Tina! She's right though, shut up."

"While some of our Vault Hunting buddies beat the slamma jamma out of that Hyperion informant in the brig, I thought that we could play a game."

Nyles frowned "Wait what? We already have a Jack, what other informant is there?"

Brick smiled, "After I went to pick Tina, some Hyperion punks ambushed us. They took us to one of their bases. But I became a Siren, and kicked their asses. Oh and we brought one back."

Nyles frowned again, for two reasons. One Brick was literally unstoppable and didn't need Siren abilities to escape from a Hyperion interrogation room. Two, how did he become a Siren?

Tina smiled "Ah, the power of fantasy!"

Data nodded, "That makes almost no sense, and strangely, I'm okay with that."

Tina just continued "Now – pick your characters. You gots the Mechromancer, the Commando, the Siren"

Brick cut Tina off, "Siren. Dibs; My Siren's name is Brick, and she is the prettiest."

Nyles raised an eyebrow, Lilith sighed in frustration "Tina, why don't we just start now and figure that out later?"

"Come on girl. You know you can't play Bunkers and Badasses without knowing what character you're playing, it _is _a role-playing game!"

"Alright, fine Brick, you can play the Siren. Because we're roleplaying as our Vault Hunter friends, her name will be Maya, and that last part is debatable" said Lilith, with a smile on her face. "I'll play the commando, said Lilith.

Tina interrupted, "Oh Roland, come over here, you're playing a special character. I'll tell you about it."

Nyles watched as Roland got up from his seat and walked over to Tina, who began whispering into his ear. Data complained "How come Roland gets to play a 'special character'?"

Lilith waved him off, "Oh come on; it'll be fine. Sit down you two."

Nyles shrugged and pulled up a seat next to Gaige and Mordecai, with Data and Sharp sitting next to Mordecai on his side. Nyles noticed two figures on that table that looked suspiciously like Tracyn and Blitz. Nyles picked up the one that looked like Tracyn and turned toward Tina "Tina, where'd you get these?"

Tina fidgeted "Uh, that's not important right now shorty, if you want to play the Trooper you sure can!"

Nyles looked over the figurine; it was fairly detailed "Alright Tina, guess that means that I'm playing the trooper."

Data picked up the one that looked like Blitz "I'm Blitz, and I have a massive rotary canon." Nyles rolled his eyebrows.

Brick nodded, "That is a great impression."

Mordecai facepalmed "That's cause they're clones Brick, they're clones!"

Data smiled, "Hey, I got to use every advantage, right?"

Sharp nodded and reached for the Salvador figurine, he activated a button on his wrist comm and the voice of Salvador started playing out of his helmet speakers "I don't need luck, I have ammo!"

Data had his helmet off, so Nyles could see the frown on his face "Hey! No fair, that's cheating!"

Gaige dived for the little Gaige figurine on the board "I'm playing me, cause no one else can."

Lilith shrugged, "Fair enough."

Michael reached for Krieg "I guess I'll play as my unsavory alter ego."

Nyles nodded, "Hey, at least you know what he says." Michael shrugged. He remembered that Michael had said that he wanted to spend some time with Tina before dropping a bombshell like that on her.

Claptrap's pincers clasped around the Athena figurine "No one knows Athena like I do. We've fought alongside each other and covered each other so many time, I've lost count, and I'm a robot!" he turned to Roland beside him, "I think we even shared a moment on the ship to Helios is if you know what I mean." Instead of winking his eye flashed.

"I won't tell Tracyn you said that" said Nyles, as he removed his helmet.

Claptrap retracted his arms "Ah, my scary minion! Yes, please don't tell him."

"Only if you promise not to annoy me" said Nyles smiling.

"Okay, sure, whatever you say!"

Roland turned to him "You know that's not possible, right?"

Nyles chuckled "I am well aware."

**Elsewhere, Hyperion Command Center**

"With the assault on our facilities in 'Hero's Pass' and the capture of Jack, as well as the arrival of these new forces I felt the need to inform the board that should we wish to continue operations on this planet we will require reinforcements."

"This board understands the situation Mr. Blake, given the amount we have already invested in Pandora; it would not be prudent to pull out. I am sending you some reinforcements, use them well Mr. Blake."

"Very well" said Blake as he moved to shut the communicator off.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**Nyles' Perspective**

"I'll play as my amigo Zer0."

"Bet you can't haiku like him though!" taunted Data.

"Yeah, I'll figure it out."

Tina looked up, "Okay, so as I was saying. Roll for initiative!"

Tina started her narration and the holotable activated displaying a scene of an ancient boat moving toward an ancient dock of sorts. Nyles could not remember how long it had been since humanity where he was from had used such ancient technology. As far as records went back, galactic civilization always had starships, not always hyperdrive equipped, but still repulsor equipped starships.

"You arrive at the docks of Flamerock Refuge. This used to be really nice until the Handsome Sorcerer messed everything up"

Nyles raised an eyebrow, the 'Handsome Sorcerer"? Well, this should definitely be interesting.

Lilith perked up, "I say we head toward the town to investigate." The others followed "Axton" off of the boat and onto the dock.

Tina continued her narration "It's a lovely day in Flamerock refuge, a far cry from" Nyles noticed that the simulated environment on the holotable changed to a sunnier one.

Lilith cut Tina off, "Wait, didn't you just say the sorcerer messed up the town? Why would things be "lovely"?"

Tina corrected herself "I - whoops. What I meant to say is its eternal night…And you hear spooky music…And the whole area kinda smells like butts, and dead people."

"Hey, this area kinda / smells like butts and dead people / an unpleasant stench."

Gaige smiled, "Nice job Mordy!"

"I'm not Mordecai / I am Zer0, Assassin / master of the haiku!"

Lilith nodded in appreciation, "Now that, is awesome." She turned toward Data and Sharp "Your out of luck guys, I think Mordy's got the whole impression thing down."

Sharp saluted Mordecai, "I salute your supremacy."

Mordecai took a bow, "Thank you, thank you."

Tina interrupted Mordecai's celebrations "That's nice Mordy but can we GET BACK TO THE GAME!"

Mordecai cringed, "Sorry."

Tina continued, "Okay, suddenly you are attacked by a horde of skellymens! They start shooting at you!"

Nyles frowned "What? A horde of what did you say?"

"Skellymens Mr. Admiral Guy, try and keep up."

Nyles looked at the holotable, it updated to show what appeared to be reanimated skeletons attacking them with bows and arrows. Nyles scoffed; how would such archaic weapons damage them. Suddenly his character's shields dropped by a quarter by the way of single arrow and then two more dropped his shields by another half.

Tina called out to him, "Don't underestimate the power of fantasy Admiral Guy!"

Nyles ducked down and pulled the gun off of his back; he noticed that Tina had given them the Vault Hunter's latest guns. He smiled as he deactivated the safety on Tracyn's DX-16 Disruptor Rifle and fired a single round at one of the skeleton's heads. The bead blew off, and the body dropped limp. He watched as Salvador moved down four skeletons with one of the DX-20s that he was carrying, but far more accurately than the "real" Salvador would. He watched as "Zer0" popped the heads off skeleton archers.

Axton was issuing orders out to everyone. "Alright, everyone move up!" Nyles raised his eyebrows, a long time since he had taken orders from anyone in infantry combat. In fact it had been a while since he had seen some ground combat, not that he was actually engaged in it, but the augmented reality courtesy of the holotable made it seem like it was. He was really wondering how Tina got this all going; she must have got one of the engineers to teach her to use it.

The Vault Hunters all moved up tearing through the horde of skeletons with fearsome speed. "You get close to the entrance of Flamerock refuge, but suddenly…The Handsome Sorcerer's pet dragon appears! Surprise Attack!" true enough a large creature appeared over the entrance to the town.

"Ooh, I want to smack it!" declared Brick.

"You try to attack the dragon but your attacks do nothing!"

All of the Vault Hunters fired their weapons at the dragon, missile launcher, disruptors, plasma bolts, airburst grenades, but indeed, it did nothing. "The dragon attacks and…CRITICAL HIT!" everyone's characters dropped to the floor.

Mordecai sighed "Great. Are we done now?"

"Tina, uh – you can't start your campaign with a boss fight players can't win."

"Mmmm, touché, Ok! Everyone back up!"

"I wanted to kill something!" complained Brick.

"Okay, how about a new boss? He's a…skeleton. And his name is…Misterrrr…Boney…Pants…Guy?"

The ramp to Flamerock refuge was flung open and a diminutive skeleton was standing there. "I am Mr. Boney Pants Guy! Rarrrr!"

All of the Vault Hunters fired at them, even Maya because Brick remembered that he was not an unstoppable juggernaut anymore. Their combined fire dropped him quickly, allowing them to fire at the other skeletons that accompanied Mr. Boney Pants Guy. Brick smiled "This pleases me."

"Alriiiight, the road to Flamerock refuge is open! You should go there. Go go go!"

The Vault Hunters fanned out through the town, checking corners like any precision military team except for Brick and Mordecai, who kinda just moved on the their own. Lilith shook her head, "Zer0, Maya, get back into formation."

"Aw come on Lil, we never had any formation bullshit" complained Mordecai.

"I'm Axton, Zer0 I thought you were ex-Atlas. Quit your bellyaching and get back into formation soldier!"

Zer0 and Maya begrudgingly "walked" back toward the formation. They walked onward before encountering another group of skeletons. The skeletons were no match for the well-armed team of Vault Hunters. They dispatched the skeletons and walked toward a huge gate that was cut into the mountain. They walked through the gate after opening it, what lay in front of them was a primitive town of sorts. Nyles just shook his head; Tina had really done a lot for this.

"You've entered the town of Flamerock Refuge. You see the town's scouting blimps, always ready in case of baddos and stuff. Whatchugonna do now?"

"Stop playing this game?" asked Mordecai.

"Let's talk to some townsfolk" suggested Lilith.

"A grrrrand idea" proclaimed Tina.

Axton walked up to some old woman, "The queen hath gone missing – maybe her bodyguard Eleanor knows where she went."

Another man cut in, "If the queen doesn't return, we shall never see the sun again."

"Sounds like we should go find this Eleanor. "A tactically sound decision" said Nyles, in his best Jango impression. Gaige put her hand up, "Way to go Nyles! That was an awesome Tracyn impression!"

"Thank you Gaige, it was not bad if you don't mind me saying so myself."

They walked up to where the bodyguard was supposed to be "Uh, where's the bodyguard?" asked Lilith.

"Oh, whoops. Forgot to put her piece on the board. BLAM! Girl looks like she got a problem."

As Tina finished speaking a rather large woman appeared on the board. Nyles had never seen her before and assumed it was someone the others new. "I punch her problems" proclaimed Tina.

"I talk to her. In character, of course. Ahem – Hello, madam. Is something the matter?" proclaimed Lilith.

"The queen is missin'! She went into the forest to bring the light back into the world!"

"So where'd she go?" asked Lilith.

"She said somethin' about using the Tree of Life to undo the curse. That must be where she's goin."

Tina continued her narration "And so your purpose became clear: you gotta go to the forest and help the queen." The Vault Hunters walked through the town toward the gate that led to the forest.

"Nobody's technically allowed in the forest cause the gatekeeper's a real pushover. Just tell 'im I sent ya."

When they finally reached the gate the gate keeper turned toward them and spoke "Yes, the queen went into the forest. It's too dangerous to go alone – I shall accompany you. Just one second and…"

Suddenly Tina's ECHO unit began to ring, "Whoops, time out. I gotta take this. Dis Tina."

A voice boomed so loud that Nyles could hear it on this end; either that or the communication tapping equipment in his helmet was just that good. "IT'S MISTER TORGUE! TINA, PUT ME IN THE GAME!"

"Okay, the gatekeeper is now Mister Torgue." The gatekeeper turned into a bare-chested highly muscled man with long hair. "WOO! FANASY WOOOOOORLD! So, I'm a gatekeeper, huh? In that case, you gotta go prove your badassitude to get past me! First task: blow up the village's scouting blimps with a fire weapon! BECAUSE – REASONS!"

Before Nyles or any of the other sane minded people could say a thing, Claptrap, Brick and Mordecai ran toward the first Blimp's winch. They fired at the incendiary barrels placed in Nyle's opinion rather conveniently underneath the winch that tethered the blimps to the village. The fire spread quickly and blew the blimp up, sending it careening into the forest ahead. Nyles ran toward the second airship as fast as he could, "Data, Sharp, come quick. We have to stop them from blowing up the last blimp!"

"But sir, my character wouldn't do that!"

"Oh fine, Data, with me now!" 'Blitz' and 'Tracyn' ran toward the last Blimp. Nyles fired the grappling hook into the blimp, and fired a boost from his thruster pack to get him into the air. He was sent into the Blimp and he saw a man who looked a lot like Roland standing there. "What are you doing here?"

"Roland quick, we need to cut the tether before…"

"Before what?" Nyles ran over to the edge of the boat, and tried his level best to cut the rope.

"Whoops, you really weren't meant to get up there, but now I'm just gonna have to improvise."

Nyles turned and saw the flame streaking up the rope, he turned and shoved Roland toward the other side of the Blimp, "Go, go, go! It's going to blow!" Nyles saw the explosion and winced, that had to hurt. Just then his character's "view screen" turned black.

**Gaige's Perspective**

Gaige watched as the blimp containing Nyles and what Nyles thought to be Roland flew off into the forest and crashed. "We just destroyed the village's only way to see approaching threats! We had NO reason to do that!"

Mister Torgue interrupted them "FANTASYYYYYYY! Alright, Badass Task TWO! GO TO THE TOWN TAVERN!

Begrudgingly they headed to the location on their HUDs that indicated the position of the town tavern. On reaching the tavern Gaige noticed that it didn't exist, which made sense considering this was Tina's campaign and she probably never needed one. Lilith noticed it too, "This town doesn't have a tavern."

"OKAY, YOU'RE AT THE TAVERN!" screamed Mister Torgue.

The building changed into a Tavern looking structure with the name 'Moxxi's Grog and Girls'. They walked in, perhaps a little cautiously, even the characters played by the two clones. Even they had no intention of finding out what was planned for them. Inside was Moxxi in extremely low cut medieval blouse. "Hey adventurer…Its closing time, but these idiots can't take a hint. Couldja throw 'em out for me? Don't be afraid to get rough."

At that Gaige reached out and delivered a swift upper cut with her robotic arm, knocking the man out cold. Salvador delivered a straight punch to the other man's gut, which should have broken his ribs, but it didn't. The man ran past them, "I'm sorry, I won't say anything douche again! – BITCH!"

"PUNCH THAT GUY SO HARD HE EXPLODES!"

Brick stepped into the doorway and delivered a phaselock augmented punch that caused the man to explode. "THAT WAS AWESOME! Let's do that again!" screamed Brick. Gaige sighed; this was going to be a long campaign.

**Nyles Perspective**

Nyles character came to; he looked around and found his rifle lying beside him. He picked it up, "Remind me to never play this game when Mister Torgue is in it."

Roland's character rubbed his head, "Tell me about it. Damn, why the hell did he blow up the damn blimp?"

"The hell if I know, we should salvage what we can, and then set a trap for whoever comes looking."

Roland nodded, "Sounds good to me."

With that the two of them searching for supplies, when Nyles found a foredeck mounted ballista and smiled; he had some plans for that.

**Gaige's Perspective**

They had just finished following the queen's trail, and fighting a whole load of Orcs and Tree-ents. Now Gaige was beginning to enjoy this campaign, after all this was what B&B was about right? They had now just finished gathering bloodfruit which that had slaughtered some ents for, and smothering the said Bloodfruit onto an artifact. Sharp was convinced that Salvador would try to eat one and so popped one in his mouth, and spat it out immediately.

"Oh it's the – where's your birdy? Your lil' birdy friend?" asked Tina.

"Tina…we told you what happened to Bloodwing."

Mordecai leaned in, "Wait, what happened to Bloodwing?"

Lilith began speaking in a hushed tone, "Quiet Mordy, you really want to explain the whole thing again and have to have the 'parents' talk again? Cause if you do, I'm good, you can lead the entire damn thing."

"Blood's takin a nap on the roof, with her friend, you know birds of a feather flock together," said Mordecai, not wanting to get into a conversation about the fact that Bloodwing has essentially become Talon's adoptive parent. Gaige smiled when she remembered Mordecai swearing to Talon after the mission that he would name his first kid after him, and ended up having to name the trash eater that hatched out of the egg that he found after him.

Tina nodded, "Oh, that's cool."

**Nyles Perspective**

"Roland heads up, we got inbound, we should move up to higher ground."

Roland nodded, "That platform looks good, slightly limited cover, but should still give us a good shot at whoever sticks their head out."

They walked over to the platform, their guns trained on the path that lead into this clearing that their airship crashed in. Suddenly Roland began glowing white and his armor changed to that of a more…primitive variety. "What's with the sudden outfit change, Roland?"

"I have no idea," just then they saw their fellow players emerge from the entrance.

"Suddenly you see the White Knight before you in all of his handsome, heroic glory! It's Roland!"

"Huh?" asked a dumbfounded Mordecai.

"Oh silly, as bunker master I get to insert special NPCs to help you along the way. Only, he's not so much an NPC."

"That really isn't far Tina!" complained Lilith.

"Oh come on girl, Roland hasn't got to play this whole time because of his title. You gots to play!"

Lilith nodded, "That's a fair point."

Nyles shrugged, "I exist."

Tina nodded, "Yes, of course you do shorty!"

Gaige burst out laughing. Nyles shrugged, "Never mind."

Just then "Athena" walked over to him "I missed you my love, I thought that you were dead!" she said leaning in. Nyles had completely forgotten that he was playing as Tracyn, and even worse; that Claptrap was playing as Athena.

He turned to the little droid, "What the kriff are you up to, droid?"

"What, I'm just roleplaying."

Lilith nodded, "You know, I hate to say this, but he does have a point."

Gaige nodded, "And by refusing to role play, you're saying that Claptrap can portray Athena more accurately than you can portray Tracyn. Nyles shuddered at the very idea.

"Look guys, I have a VERY scary girlfriend that I dearly love with all my heart."

Mordecai scoffed, "Come on Amigo, it's just a game! I'm sure she'll understand that."

Nyles swallowed, "I hope so for my sake, or death by disruptor is the best I can hope for."

Michael perked up for the first time; he nudged Brick "I can see who wears the hat in that house, eh?"

Brick simply chuckled, "Hehehe. I like your sense of humor slab."

Nyles shot a glare at him, causing him to throw up his arms "What, you walked right into that one."

Gaige coughed, "That's what she said."

Lilith rolled her eyes, "Can we just get back to the game you comedians? Nyles, just give it your best shot, I though you Mandalorians were naturally ladies men?"

Nyles gave her a look, "You have any idea how hard it is to get girls being a Mandalorian _Engineer/Pilot_?"

Lilith nodded, "Touché."

Nyles made his character lean in, "I missed you too cyar'ika. Stay with me, we'll get this done."

Claptrap's Athena very clumsily withdrew from their embrace. Nyles secretly hoped that the real Athena came in and sliced the little droid to pieces. Suddenly several large winged beasts flew up from behind them and began to attack them. Nyles smiled, they had prepared for this, he ran to the deck mounted ballista calling out to Gaige to follow him. She looked at the ballista, "Holy hell, how did this thing even survive the crash?"

"It barely did, I had to repair it, also stay away from the front of the ship, it's rigged to blow."

"On a tripwire right?"

"Yeah, I can't remember where the wire is."

Gaige facepalmed, "Excellent."

"Quit being snarky and help me with this stupid ancient weapon."

Gaige placed the bolt on the bow, while Nyles used the winch. The both pushed on the ballista to aim it, waiting for a dragon to come into their sights. Just then a dragon swooped by and they fired the mechanism making a loud CLACK as it did. The bolt flew forward and speared itself into the dragon's chest killing it. Nyles raised his fist into the air, "Kandosii (awesome)!"

Gaige did too, "Yeah!"

Just then the three turrets finished off another and sniper fire from Zer0 and Axton dropped the last one, leaving Krieg and Salvador to finish it off. Nyles watched Claptrap's Athena covering behind a rock, and shook his head.

"Alright, now you guys just follow Roland, and he'll go to the waypoint marked on the map" proclaimed Tina.

"So why'd you guys shoot down the blimp? I was supposed to go looking for the queen." asked Roland.

"MY BAD!" screamed Mister Torgue.

"So, who's this queen anyway? What are we looking for?" asked Lilith.

"She's got the most beautifulest woman in the history of ever. Shorty's got legs for days."

"Wow. That was unhelpful. Tina? Tina!" screamed Mordecai.

"Sorry. Just thinkin' bout them legs. MMH!"

They ran into some cave where Devlin the Gatekeeper was standing. "Ah, the white knight. Stand here and raise thy sword, good sir."

Roland raised an eyebrow, "I don't know, who is this guy, should we really trust him? "

"Come on Roland; just do what the man says!"

Roland shrugged, "Yeah, but I don't have a sword."

"Gun, sword, big difference."

Roland shrugged again and raised his rifle. The rock wall vanished in a dazzling display of colors. "Behold the path to the tree of life is open. Mayhaps we shall find your queen there?"

Nyles caught onto something, why did he say 'your' queen instead of 'our' queen. Nonetheless he pushed it out of his mind and they walked on. Soon they reached a bridge to a large structure, "What is this place?" asked Lilith.

Roland answered for some reason, "Vitality grove. This is where the tree of life first took root. The tree of life holds all the good and natural magics of the world – the queen must've come here to reverse the Sorcerer's curse."

Lilith raised an eyebrow, "How did you know that?"

"I just read the text scrolling across my HUD."

Lilith scoffed, "Figures."

As they reached the tree, they realized that the queen was not there. "The queen's, uh…not here."

Krieg yelled out, "YOUR PRINCESS IS IN ANOTHER CASTLE MARIO!"

Gaige smiled, "Nice one Michael!"

Michael smiled, "Thanks Gaige."

Tina frowned, "Where's that Krieg guy? Never mind, he's probbo beating the slamma jamma out of that informant."

The sound of Devlin speaking brought their attention back to the game, "Hrm…the writings say we could reverse the curse ourselves with a simple ritual."

Gaige shoved him, "Hold up, what makes you such an expert buddy?" Nyles agreed, with her suspicion, but said nothing.

Devlin backed up, "I took a course at the College of Winterhold, in a far off land named Rimsky."

"Give me the bloodfruit – we shall reverse the curse; then find the queen ourselves!" Lilith hesitantly handed a bloodfruit to the man. "Gods of the old magics, give me the strength to undo the horrible curse that was cast by the handsome, intelligent and super-awesome Sorcerer. Ho dum shi vah, ho dum shi vah, ho dum shi vah."

Nyles watched as the tree began to lose all of its leaves as red energy spiraled around it. He began reaching for his gun. Roland let out an "Oh, crap."

"Ghost kind spell! BOOYAH! FACE!" Nyles noticed huge beasts approaching them as they began opening fire and activating their special weapons. "Handsome Sorcerer here. See I kidnapped your queen, like three hours ago – she's already in my tower. Thanks for helping me summon the ghost king here, though. That was nice. Have fun dying!"

"What!? The gatekeeper was actually the Handsome Sorcerer all along! PLOT TWIST!" proclaimed Tina.

"Wait, what? That makes zero sense" reasoned Lilith.

Tina simple screamed, "PLOT TWIST!" again.

Nyles dived behind the shield generated by one of Axton's turrets and unleashed his plasma casters on one of the Skeletons. He was joined in by a rocket barrage courtesy of data and a barrage of disruptors from Sharp. The other King was taken out by Krieg slicing and shocking his bones with the electrostaff and Gaige's Deathtrap tearing it to pieces. The third was being removed while it was stuck in a phaselock and being torn apart by all three turrets and the fourth by Athena, Zer0, Roland and Axton shooting it to pieces.

After that happened they all clustered around Roland as instructed to do so by Tina. "As a representative of the Queen's Imperial Guard. I, Roland, dub you: a knight of justice and – Anyway, if you're looking for the queen, the Sorcerer's got her. You'll need to cut through the dwarven slave mines to reach his tower."

Tina cut in, "Or you could convince this nice man with the BADASS GUNSHIP to let you use it."

They all turned around and low and behold there was what appeared to be a steam powered Republic Gunship, whose cabin doors opened revealing what looked like him standing in the cabin with Wraith and Razor. "Uh, hello, we are from a galaxy far, far away and we are here to save our friend."

Nyles frowned, "Tina, I don't sound like that."

"Who says that's you shorty?"

"It says Nyles Kote on my chest armor in Aurekbesh."

Tina looked at him dumbfounded, "Shorty, I have no idea what you're saying right now so Ima gonna ignore you. Besides, your name is Nyles, not Aurekbesh."

Nyles slammed his palm into his face, "You know what? Never mind."

"Alright boys, I got this, my charisma is off the charts!"

"Ah ah ah, Lily, its whoever rolls highest!"

"Twenty!" called out Brick, triumphantly.

Nyles sighed, "Oh dear."

Sharp cringed, "This can't be good."

Data however was on another tangent, "I don't see us there commander, how come Wraith and Razor are?"

Sharp shook his head, "Cause Sharp, Razor, Blitz and Tracyn have spent the most amount of time with Tina, you chaakar."

"Alright, fine, no need to get rude!"

Brick walked up to "Nyles" and proclaimed "I punch him!"

"What?" asked and incredulous Mordecai.

Brick repeated himself, " .Him."

Tina nodded, "Roll again."

"One."

"Roll again."

"Three; that sucks."

Tina nodded again, "You completely miss him."

"Nyles" looked at all of them, "I don't know who you are, but I see people whose helmet looks like mine, they must be my long lost buddies." Nyles shook his head; did she not know how he spoke? "Because I found my friends, I will help you. Where do you need to go?"

"We need to get to Dragon Keep and kill the Handsome Sorcerer and free our queen."

"A noble quest, I can get you to the Handsome Bridge and help you fight the Handsome Dragon but after that you're on your own. Come on in." Nyles shrugged and they all stepped aboard the steamship as it lifted up into the skies.

I hope you guys liked this chapter and got all the references that I made. Till next time…


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**Tracyn's Perspective**

Tracyn looked at the datapad in his hand, displaying all of the different readouts of the base's systems. Main Reactor – Online, Backup Reactor – Online, Shield Generator – Online, Heavy Mass Driver Towers (4) – Online, Disruptor Towers (6) – Online, Plasma Repeater Perimeter defense system – Online. The base's main systems were all online, both defensive and offensive systems were running optimally. Tracyn smiled and took a sip of his caf, the matter fabricator was coming online, while it was far more small scale than the one on the _Guardian_; it was more efficient due to the addition of digistruct tech into its design. He was glad to be drinking caf again, while coffee was great, caf was just better. Of course the while it was simply fabricated caf, it was still exclusive coffee grown in the Alderanian Highlands.

He turned and stepped out of the command center, returning the salute of the 21st Expeditionary sentry at the door. He headed toward the hangar bay to board a gunship bound for Sanctuary, Maya had called him and told him that they might need some help with a Hyperion Interrogator that Tina and Brick had retrieved. He would be glad to see Tina again, but only after he was done with what he had to do. Blitz joined him from the direction of the passage that led to the armory and vehicle storage. "Everything set up ner vod?"

"Transfer of weapons and vehicles from the _Guardian _is complete; all we need to do now is inventory. I left Lieutenant Rys on that."

"Sounds good, I knew that you'd come. Been about a day since we've seen our friends, isn't it? It's a good thing that they decided to postpone the celebration by a couple of days so that we could get things together."

"Yeah it was, and of course I'm here, I wouldn't miss beating the Osik out of some Hyperion chaakar with my friends for anything."

Tracyn smiled, "Well, let's get going then," They stepped into the gunship which after the cavernous hangar blast doors opened took off. Tracyn looked at the base as they ascended, they exterior landing pads were occupied by gunships as well and the entire base was a hive of activity, a single Phalanx Frigate standing sentinel over it all.

The gunship soon reached Sanctuary and it touched down on the landing pad. Tracyn hit the button that opened the troop bay doors, prompting them to open with a hiss. He stepped out and walked toward where he knew the new location of the brig was; underneath the command center. He walked in and Captain Davis' salute. Davis had been recently promoted, and was getting into his new duties with ease.

He activated the elevator and it descended into the depths of the city. Tracyn noticed the turrets on the steel plated wall behind him turn to track him. He walked over to the Raider on duty, "I'm here to see the prisoner." The guard looked at his screen and then hit a switch opening the door to the cells behind him.

"Go right on in sir, the other Vault Hunters are already there."

Tracyn nodded and he and Blitz walked in heading into the hall and stopping outside a room with a steel plated door. Tracyn hit the button, which upon receiving his ECHO code and bioscan, opened the door in front of him. There he saw the Hyperion scumbag handcuffed to the chair with Axton standing over him and Salvador throwing punches at him. Maya and Athena were standing to the side. The two ladies smiled when they noticed Blitz and Tracyn walking in, "Tracyn, Blitz, how goes the second job?" asked Maya.

"Quite good Maya, no action yet, but I feel sorry for the shabuir who we do end up fighting. On the plus side, we had traditional Mando food for lunch."

Maya slapped her forehead, "Lunch! That's what we forgot! We had been so occupied with breaking this guy ever since Brick and Tina brought him in."

"Speaking of which, where are Gaige and Michael?" asked Blitz.

"They're upstairs, playing some game with Tina."

"Oh, we were that close to playing that game" said Tracyn.

Athena stepped forward and raised her mask, "Well, Axton and Salvador aren't getting very far other than making a huge mess. Do you and Blitz want to try, or should Maya and I go?"

Axton looked over and gave the four of them a scowl; Tracyn noticed the blood on his face that was obviously not his. "You know what, why don't you ladies go ahead? We just had lunch."

Athena smiled and lowered her visor and began walked over to their captive, "Come on Maya; let's show the guys how it's done. Besides, I'm itching for some revenge." Tracyn shuddered at the thought of Athena letting loose on that Interrogator, regardless the results would still be interesting.

**Helena's Perspective**

Helena looked at the clone trooper standing next to her; the blood was showing up even on his grey armor. "I bet he's glad he doesn't have white armor" she thought to herself. She had Jack by his throat, "Alright smartass, you got blood on Wraith's armor and my suit. I hope you realize that you're in trouble now." He smiled, revealing blood covered teeth.

She raised her fist and delivered another solid punch to his face. Just then the mask on his face snapped into two. Both pieces dropped to the table with a clang. He smiled again, "You see, I've already been through hell, what makes you think I'm scared of you?"

"Because when I'm done with you, whatever happened to you will feel like a day at the spa." She nodded to the clone trooper, "Restraints on." Restraints on the chair activated, securing him in place.

**Nyles' Perspective**

Nyles watched looked out of the viewports on the steam powered version of the Republic MAAT/SOH gunship they were flying on currently. Below them he could see a large bridge with structures protruding out each side, looking like the spine of some sort of creature. The gunship touched down on the bridge and after letting them out ascended into the air to provide air cover. "Alright, hang on. Just, wait – wait up. I'm gonna release my dragon on you in a sec. I just gotta get my - camcorder ready. Here we go. Gonna put dubstep behind the footage of you guys dying and get tons of hits on the ECHOnet. It's gonna be awesome." Nyles wasn't sure where the ECHOnet was even invented this far back in history, or if cameras even existed, but decided to let it slide, this was a game after all.

"The dragon from the beginning of the campaign approacheth! Roll! For! Initiative!"

Axton threw his turrets down, Roland did so as well. Nyles noticed smaller dragons flying in. He raised his rifle and looked down the scope and began firing bursts at one of them. He was joined by Zer0, who took two of them out with his Verpine Shatter Rifle. He watched as the three turrets, Salvador and Blitz focused on the sorcerer's dragon while Axton, Maya, Gaige and Deathtrap handled the dragons that he and Zer0 missed. Eventually all of the smaller dragons were dealt with and everyone focused their fire on the sorcerer's dragon. The Dragon soon began to falter "Argh! Dragon, retreat already!" However the dragon fell onto the bridge, dead. "Oh! Snap!"

"Looooooot baby babayyyyyyy!" Proclaimed Tiny Tina as both currency and refined Eridium ingots spewed out of the dragon.

Lilith cheered, "Alright!"

Brick laughed, "Haha!"

Even Mordecai joined in, "Hell yeah!"

"Ah, what a bummer. Alright get up here and I'll kill you myself, hold on I'll unlock the door for you." Nyles and the others walked in through the door unlocked by the sorcerer, in high spirits over their recent victory.

As they enter the building, they step onto the elevator. Zer0 reaches for the lever, "Wait, are we sure that's not a trap?"

Mordecai waved her off, "Oh come on Lil, I'm positive." His character pulls the lever causing them all to drop.

"You drop into the moldy dungeon, embarrassed by how easily the sorcerer lured you in to his trap" narrated Tina.

"Good luck escaping my dungeon, jackasses. It's been real."

"So, how do we get back to town?" asked Lilith.

"You can't, you TRAPPED, son."

"But I wanna do side quests and stuff" complained Brick.

"Oh. Good point. Suddenly…THIS happens!" Right as Tina finished her sentence, one of the walls collapsed to reveal an alternate passage.

Suddenly Nyles screen flashed and he realized that his character was in a dungeon of sorts. "Oh yeah, I forgot, Tracyn and Athena are in a dungeon."

Lilith interrupted, "Whoa, whoa, Tina what's going on?"

Tina shrugged, "Come on girl, it's just a game. It's not like I based this off real life and that I listened in on Hyperion ECHO transmissions and found about it all." Nyles knew exactly what Lilith meant; she wanted to know how Tina knew about Tracyn and Athena's capture. Incidentally, now that Nyles knew the answer, he was not sure if he was okay with it.

Tina continued, "Okay, side quest. You have to rescue Tracyn and Athena before rescuing the sorcerer's daughter. "

Nyles looked at "Athena", "Hey droid got any ideas about getting out of here?"

"Your ideas are as good as mine!" said "Athena".

"Probably a lot better" Nyles mumbled to himself.

"At least Tina doesn't know about them getting tortured" he said to himself. He looked down; at least she didn't get rid of their armor. This left a whole avenue of opportunities; vibro blades, plasma caster, jump pack. Because this was an older style dungeon his characters arms were secured to the ceiling by way of manacles and a chain. Nyles activated his vibro blades and cut his arms free, then using them to remove the manacles.

"Oh, how did you do that?" asked Claptrap.

"Simple, I had better ideas than you did' he said walking toward "Athena" and cutting the manacles off her gauntlets.

"Alright, Tracyn here, Athena and I are free. Meet you guys where the Sorcerer's Daughter is being held."

Soon they were all gathered around a pole in the center of the room. Secured to the pole by two restraints was the sorcerer's daughter. "Quick, set me free!" she said. "Axton" made to raise his gun when Gaige put her hand on the gun.

"Wait, something's off. The "sorcerer's daughter" never begged us to free her. She wanted us get rid of her so she couldn't be used to charge the key."

"Hmm, that is a good point" agreed Lilith.

"I vote we shoot her" said Gaige; however Nyles could see the hesitance on Lilith's face.

"Lilith, they're not the same person. There's no telling what this version will do."

Tina was not admitting to anything, "What version shorty, this is the sorcerer's daughter; you've never met her before."

Nyles raised his rifle, and fired before she could say anything causing her to slump forward, dead. "You know Tina; the sorcerer's daughter wasn't as bad as you think" said Lilith as they walked onward.

"What're you talking about Lily? Nothing would have happened if it wasn't for her." In truth Nyles had to agree with her, albeit only partially. After reading the reports on how she deceived the original Vault Hunters and then the current ones, only to redeem herself by giving away the location of the Vault Key.

Soon they made it to the tower. "Ah, you made it to the tower! Now I can watch from my balcony as you're torn limb from screaming, bloody limb."

Brick whistled, "Damn Tina. That was graphic."

Tina shrugged, "Don't hate the player; hate the game."

They ascended an elevator that took them to the top of the tower. "You'd better hurry. If you don't get here quick, my men are going to bust into your precious little queen's cell and murder her ass. Good luck bringing light back into the world when your savior's nothing but a pile of ashes chumps."

The team continued fighting through hordes of knights and skeletons, now they were about down to three quarter s of their total number of power cells/magazines. "Oh hey quick update – I got bored. I'm not gonna lie, I ordered my men to kill the queen anyway. They're probably using her head as a soccer ball right now. See ya soon."

Mordecai cursed "Damn it, we better hurry!"

After fighting through even more enemies they made it to the teleporter that would take them to the top of Dragon Keep. One by one they used the teleporter. When Nyles could see again, he could see the handsome sorcerer in front of them. "So, you made it at last! You're a bit late to save your precious little queen, but hey – at least you get to die in unimaginable freaking pain!"

"Here it is - the big boss!" informed Tina, excitedly. They began firing at him. Axton threw down turrets, Gaige unleashed Deathtrap, Salvador began dual wielding his DX-20s, Athena pulled out her shield, Maya tried to put him in a phaselock, and he fired his plasma casters. It seemed however that the fiend just would not die. They were firing ridiculous amounts of ammunition into him. Just then he transformed into a "Necrotic Sorcerer" regaining a vast portion of his health.

Yet again they whittled his health down, only for him to turn into a "Demonic Sorcerer". He began firing beams of energy at them, but they managed to support each other, but the man just refused to die. Nyles gun stopped firing, he looked at the power indicator on the cell; empty. Soon, Maya, then Axton, Gaige, Krieg, Salvador, Athena, Blitz and Zer0 stopped firing. The Sorcerer unleashed a huge blast of energy, knocking them to the floor. The sorcerer began to gloat, "Hah, you thought that you could vanquish me? Mere mortals, against me, the all-powerful sorcerer, fools. I win, and you, you lose." Nyles heard a sound that he had grown to love; the sound of a Republic Gunship. He turned around and watched as the gunship unleashed hell on the sorcerer, knocking him to the floor. The troop bay opened and standing next to each other with rifles aimed at the sorcerer were Roland and Tina's interpretation of him. Clones walked out of the troop bay and began lifting them to their feet and handing out new magazines and power cells.

Roland smiled, "Wrong again, sorcerer."

The Sorcerer dropped his staff, "This is going to really hurt." With that in a blaze of colors the sorcerer was vanquished with nothing left but his burnt and damaged staff on the floor.

Roland and "Nyles" jumped out of the gunship. "You did it, you killed the sorcerer."

"No, we killed the sorcerer, couldn't have done it without your help Admiral Kote." "Nyles" nodded and they began walking toward the entrance of the keep, as Clones moved to secure the platform.

"As you enter the keep you gaze upon the bodies of the unfortunate knights who tried to murder the queen, you know you've come to the right place. For who else could possible bring the light back into the world? Who else, but the most beautiful, most glamorous, and most graceful queen in history: BUTT STALLION!" Nyles was shocked when he saw the horse which appeared to made from diamond walk toward them.

"With a clop of her beautiful hooves and a whip of her fine-ass hair, Queen Butt Stallion brought light back to the kingdom once and for all: The end. So – what did you guys think?"

Gaige smiled, "I really loved it Tina, that's the best campaign I ever played. Thank you."

Tina smiled too, "No problem sissy!"

Lilith smiled as well, "I think I agree with Gaige."

Brick hugged Tina, "I got to punch stuff. That pleased me."

Mordecai smiled as well, "I have to admit, I had a lot of fun."

Tina turned to him, "So Admiral Nyles, what'd you think."

"I think that I had a lot of fun."

Data yawned, "Thanks for that Tina, who knew being a stick in the mud would be so much fun."

"Aww, yous too kind, all of yous" said Tina, blushing.

Roland smiled, Nyles knew why; Tina's campaign was an almost exact reenactment of the adventures of the Vault Hunters. Out of the corner of his eye, Nyles could see the other Vault Hunters approaching. Maya stepped forward, "Hey guys, that interrogator just coughed up the deactivation code for Opportunity's defenses. Anyone feel like taking a city?"

Axton walked by, "That's not all he coughed up."

Tracyn walked toward him, "I know, I'm going to be getting blood off my armor for a while."

Athena walked past him, her armor more red than black "You're telling me."

Nyles shook his head and walked toward the consoles, "I think I've had enough action for one day, besides, don't you have that celebration in an hour?" The Vault Hunters all looked at their various devices and began to leave the room, except for Gaige, Zer0 and Tracyn who lingered. Nyles decided to give them their space and left the room as well, smiling as he remembered his little game with Tiny Tina; The Assault on Dragon Keep.

**Till next time…**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**Gaige's Perspective**

Gaige stood up from her seat as everyone left to go and freshen up for the celebration. Gaige smiled, honestly, they were probably celebrating a bit much. She shrugged, at least this time they had a good reason to, Handsome Jack was in a prison cell and The Warrior was dead. She turned to see Zer0 walking over to her, slowly. "Hey Z, what's with the slow walk?"

"I have a present for you / Gaige, an ECHO communicator / to contact your parents"

"A what, where'd you get this?" she asked.

"I have my sources / I have called in a favor / now just enjoy it."

Tracyn turned toward them both, "Well, I would have simply suggested using a Republic comm unit, but I guess Zer0 has it covered."

Gaige activated the unit and began punching in commands so that the already scrambled frequency device would be even harder to trace. She typed in the frequency for someone she thought that she would never see again; her father. She hit the call button and a heartbeat later she heard a response, "Hello?"

"Dad, it's me, Gaige."

"Gaige, honey it's so good to hear your voice. Tell me, are you safe? We heard the news about Handsome Jack, Hyperion stock is suffering from it too. That some huge army came in and almost wiped Hyperion off the map."

"I'm safe daddy; I don't know how long this line is secure, where are you guys?"

"Gaige, you remember Grandma's old farmhouse?"

"Got it Dad, we'll be there soon."

"Gaige no, it's not safe for you to come here."

"Relax Dad; I've fought things far worse than Eden-5's fascist police force. Besides, my friends and I can handle anything."

There was a pause on the other end as her father considered what she said, "How will you get here, especially without avoiding detection."

"Come on Dad, have some faith. We can get there without being detected; one of my friends is part of that giant army that attacked Pandora." She turned to her right to see Tracyn giving her a look.

"May I?" he asked, gesturing to the ECHO unit. She nodded handing him the device.

"Sir, Commander Tracyn Verda here, don't worry, your daughter has been in good hands. I'll speak to my commander; we'll have a team underway immediately."

"Thank you Commander, for everything, put my daughter back on the line please."

Tracyn handed the ECHO unit back to her, "I don't know about this Gaige, but I'll go along with it. Listen, I wanted to ask you, who gave you this ECHO unit?"

"Oh, it wasn't Tracyn if you're wondering; it was my other" she paused for a moment, wondering whether to tell her father about Zer0 and decided against telling him now "friend, Zer0."

"That's nice honey; could you put him on the line? I just wanted to talk to him for a moment."

"Sure thing, Dad" she said, handing the ECHO unit to Zer0.

"Thanks a lot Z, this was so awesome of you!" she said, leaning in and giving him a hug.

**Zer0's Perspective**

Zer0 picked up the ECHO unit, "Assassin or Bounty Hunter, son?"

Zer0 was shocked, "Sir?"

"I was a commando son, I know things. Now answer my question, Assassin or Bounty Hunter?"

Zer0 swallowed, "Assassin."

"Thought as much, tell me how old are you son?"

"I don't understand."

"There's only one kind of person that would go through the trouble of getting an encrypted ECHO unit; someone interested or possibly already in a relationship with my daughter." Zer0 paused. "Already in a relationship then, alright if you hurt my daughter, just know, that I will find you and I will kill you."

In one of those rare moments, Zer0 felt fear "Of course sir, I understand."

"Good, then we're going to get along perfectly."

**Tracyn's Perspective**

Tracyn looked at the "new" Moxxi's; she had certainly taken advantage of the Republic Engineers, perhaps a little too much. It was almost exactly like the old bar, except larger and less run down. She also had several repurposed Loaders, serving as servers and one serving as a cook. Surprisingly she had asked him to come down a little earlier to try the food, which incidentally was good. The bot was using Moxxi's recipes after all. He wasn't so sure about using the Loaders, but considering Admiral Kote was using repurposed Separatist BX-Commando droids, he wasn't so surprised.

As he entered he passed a happy couple leaving the bar, and nodded to them. They thanked him for everything he had did and moved on. Tracyn smiled, it was nice to see life returning to normal. He stepped inside and saw Mordecai and Moxxi speaking, "I don't know Mordecai, are you sure that stuff is safe to drink?"

Tracyn looked at the crates of Gal (Ale) behind the barmaid, "Of course it is ma'am, besides, the 21st and Shadow Company love that stuff; it's from Admiral Nyles family farm on Mandalore."

"I thought that your people were warriors," Moxxi asked him, slightly confused.

"The farm is just a day job."

Moxxi smiled, "I see, well you can help Mordecai and I set up if you'd like."

Half an hour later, everything was ready for the party with Mordecai, the Loaders and Blitz's help. Blitz had come in later; apparently he had to convince a squad of 21st Expedition Engineers to stop working and join the festivities. By now a crowd was beginning to gather. He could see Clones both in Naval Uniform and Armor walking in through the entrance, in addition to Crimson Raiders.

He saw the two Clone Assassins Glaive and Scythe walking toward the bar, "Hey Commander, did you get the Gal we sent?"

Tracyn smiled, "Moxxi, two glasses of Gal for these two fine chaakars."

Moxxi smiled at the two assassins, "Sure thing sugars." A while later she came back with two glasses of Gal.

Scythe's head turned ever so slightly to track Moxxi as she walked back to the bar, Mordecai walked over to Scythe, "Don't even think about it amigo."

Scythe raised his hands in defense, "Hey, can't blame a guy for looking. Besides I thought the two of you were done."

Tracyn watched the DJ walking in, what was his name? Voltage was it? Voltage walked over to him, "VAULT HUNTER! IT'S AN HONOR TO BE PLAYING AT YOUR GATHERING!" Tracyn nodded, it wasn't his type of music but Lilith and Gaige especially seemed to enjoy it to no ends.

"Honor's all ours, Voltage is it?"

"Yes, it is. I had better get to the turntable; you try and enjoy yourself tonight."

He smiled, "I will, thank you."

**A/N: SirRegiVonDubstep, that's my formal apology for our little argument. **

Tracyn turned around to face the entrance where there was a fair bit of commotion, what Tracyn saw made his jaw drop. Standing in the entrance was Admiral Nyles Kote and Agent Deviss, Agent Deviss was in a stunning dress, while Admiral Kote was still in his armor. Tracyn recognized the dress as those given to the graduates of the training program that both she and the Admiral attended.

He noticed them walking by, Admiral Kote was blinking as if to clear his eye "You told me there weren't going to be any cameras. What kind of intelligence agent are you?"

"You told me that you were going to wear something nice."

"I am, I'm Mando'ade remember, we love our armor. Besides, we're going Dha Werda Verda later" protested Admiral Kote, noticing him and walking over.

"Sir, ma'am, it's nice to see you here."

"Good to be here Tracyn, I take it you got my little gift?"

"Yes sir, we got the Gal, its being served out now."

Nyles nodded and walked over to the bar, "Barkeep, two glasses of Ale please."

Moxxi turned to him, "Sure Admiral, nice to see the two of you, especially you Agent Deviss."

Agent Deviss raised her eyebrows, but said nothing. Tracyn smiled, he had long gotten used to Moxxi's tendencies a while back.

Agent Deviss and Admiral Kote walked off from the bar with their drinks, he turned to Moxxi "Trying to get me fired Moxxi?"

"Just observing is all."

"Might have to avoid that, I like my job, a lot" he said. She smiled at him and returned to her duties.

Just then he watched as Maya and Axton walked in through the door. Both Siren and Commando had discarded their standard attire for more appropriate outfits. Axton had a smart black shirt and a pair of what he was told was called Jeans. Maya had on a blue dress that suited her well. Axton walked over, "Hey, if it isn't my two buddies, Blitz and Tracyn. Tell me, what say we get a Vault Hunter shot together?"

"Axton, Maya; you two clean up nice" said Blitz. Maya blushed, and Axton smiled.

"A shot sounds nice, maybe when everyone has arrived?" hoping to prevent an awkward silence.

"Yeah, that's probably a better idea."

Just then Athena, Gaige and Zer0 walked in. Zer0 still had his suit on, while Gaige and Athena were both wearing dresses as well. Gaige had on a navy blue one and Athena the same one she wore a while back. Tracyn noticed his eyes wandering and shook himself out of it, he hadn't done that before, being out of combat in a time of relative peace did have its disadvantages, or advantages depending on how you looked at it.

"Looking sharp, cyar'ika, you too Gaige."

They both let out a "Thank you."

Zer0 displayed a frown on his visor, "Oh come on Zer0, that's your regular outfit."

Athena nudged him in the ribs and Zer0 displayed a smiley face on his visor. Tracyn smiled, he was glad that these two were getting along again. "So, what happened with the two of you?" he asked as they walked toward the bar.

Athena looked over at Zer0, "Well, um, we had a long conversation about Atlas."

Tracyn raised his eyebrows, "Oh?"

"Well, we realized that Atlas had turned us against each other just as they had turned my sisters against…me. So today I have a silly younger brother to watch over, I always wondered how that'd feel."

"Well that's nice to hear cyar'ika, now my friend and my riduur (seriously, I have translated this word to death) finally found a common ground. Does make it a little awkward though" he said smiling.

Gaige frowned, "Hmm, doesn't it? Its good thing that the two of you aren't related, wait, you aren't actually related are you?"

Zer0 and Athena looked at each other, "Well, um, I don't really know."

Tracyn ran his hand through his hair, "Way to go cyar'ika, I'm not sure how I feel about that."

She him gave a look "But it's not a problem I mean, it doesn't change how I feel about you."

Now it was Gaige's turn to give them both a look, "Come on you two love birds, let's get you a drink."

**Axton's Perspective**

"So, how do I know you're serious and this isn't something that was just convenient for you?"

"What brought this on, Maya?" He said, looking at her.

"I don't know; you've been looking at that ring an awful lot lately."

"It's nothing; Sarah and I are done anyways." He turned away.

"Look Axton, I just…"

He put his hand on her chin, "Hey, let's forget about Sarah, we just kicked Handsome Jack's ass, we deserve some R&R."

**Tracyn's Perspective**

Tracyn saw Sharp walking over to him, "Tracyn, Blitz, come on, we're starting Dha Werda Verda."

Gaige put her glass down, shaking her head to clear it. She had been allowed to drink today, but nothing as strong as Gal. Tracyn smiled, thinking about the first time he went to a bar.

"Dha what, what?" asked Gaige.

"You'll see Gaige, you'll see."

Tracyn stood up walking over to the center of the room, nodding to Voltage as he did. On cue the music changed to the tribal beats that usually accompanied the performance. Next to him were Blitz and ARC Squad 14. Dha Werda Verda demanded absolute trust in the person standing next to you. Tracyn remembered how they had been retaught the song's original version after the Battle of Geonosis, and for that he was thankful, the original version was far better.

In the first row, Commander Sharp started the chant and the dance.

_Taung sa rang broka Mando'ade ka'rta.  
>Dha Werda Verda a'den tratu,<br>Manda'yaim kandosii adu.  
>Duum motir ca'tra nau tracinya.<br>Gra'tua cuun hett su dralshy'a._

_Kom'rk tsad droten troch nyn ures adenn.  
>Dha Werda Verda a'den tratu,<br>Manda'yaim kandosii adu.  
>Duum motir ca'tra nau tracinya.<br>Gra'tua cuun hett su dralshy'a._

**Translation:**

_"The ash of the Taung beats strong within the Mandalorians' heart._  
><em>We are the rage of The Warriors of the Shadow,<em>  
><em>The first noble sons of Mandalore.<em>  
><em>Let all those who stand before us light the night sky in flame.<em>  
><em>Our vengeance burns brighter still.<em>

_The gauntlet of Mandalore strikes without mercy._  
><em>We are the rage of The Warriors of the Shadow,<em>  
><em>The first noble sons of Mandalore.<em>  
><em>Let all those who stand before us light the night sky in flame.<em>  
><em>Our vengeance burns brighter still."<em>

As the chant progressed Tracyn felt the dull thump of both Blitz and Wraith's fist on his armor. The sound of Metal on Metal echoed in the background of the notes of the chant, proving to be a decidedly awe-inspiring experience for anyone watching. Out of the corner of his vision he could see Admiral Nyles participating as well, wavering ever so slightly with each impact of Commander Blade's fist on his chest plate.

As it drew to an end, the bar burst out into cheers; Vault Hunters, Crimson Raiders and Citizens all giving their praise.

Tracyn turned around in his bed, disrupting the position of the blanket. Athena adjusted before turning onto her side. Tracyn watched the subtle movements of her breathing and sighed. If this was what normal life was like then he could get used to that. Sure he would need to shoot something every once in a while, but it was not like Pandora was short on things to shoot at.

He suddenly felt his arm being tugged at and noticed Athena trying to pull him closer in a halfhearted manner, obviously very asleep and unaware of her movements. Tracyn smiled assisted her in her sleepy endeavor. She pulled his arm so that it was wrapped around her. He saw her smile in her sleep and moved in close, drifting off now as well.

**Nyles' Perspective**

"I don't know Gaige," said Admiral Kote, hands crossed.

"Come on Nyles, if it were your parents wouldn't you do it." Nyle's helmet was still clipped to his belt so Gaige could see the frown on his face.

"I understand the situation, and I understand your desperation, but what exactly would you have me do?"

"I just need one ship, something small, stealthy."

"Fine, I see that you won't stop persisting. I'll contact Talon, a gunship could get there quickly, quietly and if it comes to it, take care of any would be attackers. How comfortable are you with working with Glaive and Scythe?"

"They seem nice enough, what about the others?"

Tracyn shook his head, "Zer0 and Athena could come with if you'd like."

"Glaive and Scythe can handle themselves Gaige, don't worry about it."

Gaige nodded, "Alright, then, what are we waiting for?" Nyles shook his head, smiling.

As Gaige was walking away, Agent Deviss stepped into his peripheral vision "A lot like you, back in the day."

"I know, sometimes it scares me."

"Doesn't it, if I didn't know any better I could have sworn that you were twins."

Nyles shook his head again, "I'll call Talon, Glaive and Scythe, tell them to get ready."

**Gaige's Perspective**

Gaige slapped in a new clip into her PX-15 as she walked into the Hangar bay, flanked by the two Clone Assassins.

"So, do you know where this Farmhouse is Gaige?" asked Glaive, checking his Sniper Rifle.

Gaige was about to answer when they were both distracted a loud beep that came from a weapon in Scythe's hands with a huge barrel.

Glaive slapped his helmet, "Oh for the love of…put that away you chaakar."

"But it's the new Multiple Ordinance Launcher; I just wanted to try it out."

"What part of a 'stealth' mission don't you understand? If I didn't know better I'd say that you failed training."

Scythe put the weapon on a nearby crate, "Yeah, yeah, you never let my try anything out."

"You'll get over it." Gaige smiled, this could get interesting.

Gaige could see the dark grey gunship ahead of them, the two pilots entering their seats as they saw them coming. Gaige recognized the pilot; Talon. As they stepped inside Gaige activated the squad com, "Hey Talon, what's the deal, you everyone's pilot?"

"One of the problem's with being the best is that you get sent on a lot of drops. Speaking of being the best, did that Mordecai name his bird after me?"

"He sure did Talon, kinda fits though."

"Probably fits him better than it fits me, he actually has Talons."

Gaige winced when she remembered Talon scratching Lilith "Sharp ones too from the look on Lilith's face."

Talon laughed. Scythe nodded, "Gotta love that little guy, he tried to get me too, let's just say it's a good thing I wear armor."

"This is Guardian Air Control to Aurek 1-1, you are clear, good hunting boys."

Gaige watched from the viewports as the gunship accelerated until the space around them became motes of light and was finally replaced by a blue wormhole of sorts. "Whoa, that's so cool."

"Oh, Hyperspace, I forgot the first time I was on a ship travelling through Hyperspace, guess it became something of a normalcy for me" said Glaive.

"Coming out of Hyperspace in around three hours, that's a Class 1.0 for you."

**Eden-5, Farm House**

Leo looked at the sensor monitor; it was lit up like a Christmas Tree. Damn, how had they found them, even worse, Gaige was supposed to be on her way here. What if they managed to get her? No, he could not let that happen. "Jemma, they're here!" He turned around and saw his Wife running in, Dahl Emperor in hand.

"How did they find us so quickly?" she asked concern apparent on her face.

"Calm down, we don't know if they've found us."

Suddenly a bullhorn amplified voice called out, "We know you're in there, you are surrounded, come out with your hands on your head!"

Jemma turned to him; he pulled the charging bolt on his Rifle and nodded. She followed suit, chambering in a high caliber round into her submachine gun. They activated the makeshift energy barriers that turned the house into a giant pillbox.

**A/N: Before someone says, "Hey Fordo, submachine guns don't use high caliber rounds", I say I mean high caliber for a submachine gun, how else do you explain the high damage on the Emperor?**

He took the first shot, sighting onto an Eden-5 Police Officer, turning his head into a mess of mangled mettle and flesh. The others began opening fire, fired another burst, producing the same result. He noticed several officers trying to make it to their front door, "Jemma, door!" His wife turned her submachine gun and fired, tearing through their riot shields and perforating their heads.

Just then he noticed what looked like a cheap knockoff of his daughter's science fair project. Cheap or not, it still fired heat beams and the occasional rocket into their barrier. Jemma flinched when the last rocket hit the shield, she looked down at her datapad, "Leo, the barrier strength is down to 80 percent!" Leo cursed, whatever Gaige was going to do, he hoped she did it soon.

**Glaive's Perspective**

"Coming out of Hyperspace!" called out Talon. Glaive looked out the viewport, ahead of them was the planet Eden-5; he could see several Trading Ports and single security station. "Detecting scanner pings, going cloaked."

"How does it feel to be home Gaige?" he asked.

She looked at the planet for a moment, "Not as good as I thought."

"Talon, take us in. You know Gaige, for the longest time none of us could set foot on Mandalore."

"Why not, isn't it your home world?"

"The new regime had adopted a pacifist stance on the war, hutuune. Recently they were deposed by the Death Watch, enemies of the True Mandalorians. The Republic retook the planet and General Fett has been returning it to the old ways ever since. Now, we are free to walk on its surface, to live, as we should have been. One day, the corrupt leadership you mentioned will be overthrown, and normalcy will return."

"I never thought of it that way, right now all I want to do is see my parents again."

"I wish I could say that I knew that feeling."

"I'm sorry" she said trying to look past his visor.

"Don't be, I'm proud to be part of the resurgence of the Mandalorians. If I could change the way things went, I wouldn't."

She smiled, "I _do _know that feeling, have you and Tracyn been talking?"

He smiled back; even though she couldn't see it "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Entering Atmosphere, standby" informed Talon. "Ten minutes to drop off."

Gaige reached for her carbine, checking the energy cell and sights. He turned to Scythe, seeing him asleep in one of the crash seats. "Scythe, get your lazy shebs (ass) up" he said, shaking his partner awake.

"Hmm, yeah got it" said Scythe as he stood to his feet, removing his disruptor pistol from the holster and checking it.

Glaive looked at the view screen watching the gunship speed low over the terrain. In the distance he could see a small building, mostly burning. Gaige gasped "No, no, no, this can't be happening! We're too late!"

Glaive hated to admit it, but the signs were not good "Calm down now, it may not be as bad as it seems." Gaige took a deep breath and let it go.

Glaive picked up his Verpine Shatter Rifle, "Set us down here, then circle the area."

Talon lowered the gunship, touching down on a hill overlooking the house. The doors hissed open and the three of them jumped out onto the grass crouching on the hill. Glaive looked down the sight of his rifle; he could see the burnt house and the wreckage of several droids that looked like Gaige's and cars. In front of the wrecks of the cars, was a squad of seven armored men standing in front of two captives. One was a well-built man with brown hair and the other a woman also with brown hair.

"Scythe, execute attack plan delta." Scythe nodded once and cloaked disappearing into the night.

"Attack plan delta, what does that mean? Are my parents alive?"

Glaive nodded, "Yes, they are."

"Then let's go!" she said, making to get up.

"No, we wait for Scythe's signal; it's your parents' best chance."

"Damn it, alright, we'll wait."

**Scythe's Perspective**

Scythe walked silently through the night toward where Gaige's parents were. He scanned the area, there were four guards guarding them, while two of the others were on some sort of communications device; no doubt trying to call reinforcements. Gaige's parents were both in handcuffs, from the looks of things they had put up one hell of a fight; he had respect for those kinds of people. He walked over until he was right behind the two guards and flashed his acknowledgement signal.

He uncloaked and ejected his vibroswords slicing the heads of all four guards with a swing of each arm dropping to his knees in front of Gaige's parents both disruptor pistols aimed at the other two guards. He never got a shot off as Glaive's Verpine Shatter Rifle put a high velocity round in each of the guard's heads. He was about to holster his weapons when he heard the clicking of a gun behind him, with his enhanced sensors he could see Gaige's father with a pistol raised at his head.

"I don't know who or what you are, but you're going to let us go unless you want a bullet in your brain."

He raised his hands slowly, "Look, if I wanted you dead, you wouldn't be alive to point that pistol at me. I suggest you lower the weapon; I'm a friend of your daughter's. "

"Commander Tracyn?" he asked lowering the weapon a fraction.

"Lieutenant Scythe, I'm under the Commander" he said, not wanting to complicate matters further.

"Hmm, alright, mind cutting us loose?" Glaive walked over and cut both parent's handcuffs with his vibroswords.

"Alright Lieutenant, lead the way" he said, walking over to one of the guards picking up a rifle, as did his wife.

"Glaive, I'm on my way." Scythe led them to the hill where Glaive and Gaige were perched. Gaige turned around, slung her rifle and ran over to her parents. The three of them embraced.

"I missed you guys so much! When we we're coming in, we saw the house and I thought…"

"It's alright honey," her father said, standing up "We're alright, thanks to your friend."

Glaive stood up and decloaked, "Hey, I shot those two guards." Gaige's parents jumped. Glaive cringed, "Sorry."

Gaige's father stepped forward "And you are?"

"Lieutenant Glaive."

Her father nodded, "Those are some interesting call signs gentlemen," he said.

Glaive nodded, "Thank you, sir."

Just then he heard the muffled sound of a cloaked gunship. The gunship touched down behind them and decloaked, he began walked toward it, "Oh well, our ride is here. Shall we?"

He stood at the door, waiting for the others "After you" he said, gesturing into the cabin. Gaige's parents walked toward the gunship, amazed. He could see Gaige smiling, probably remembering when she was in their place.

**Gaige's Perspective**

Gaige smiled as she sat down on one of the seats between her parents. The doors shut and she could hear Talon's voice over the cabin speakers, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to welcome you aboard Flight Aurek 1-1 non-stop to Pandora. If you need anything don't hesitate to inform me, your pilot for today, Talon or our lovely stewardesses in the back Glaive and Scythe."

Gaige smiled, and noticed that her mom was smiling too. Her father was nodding, "This outfit is just full of great call signs isn't it. Did I ever tell you guys my call sign back in the day?" he asked Glaive.

Glaive shook his head, "In the five minutes that we've known each other, no I don't think so sir."

Her mom rolled her eyes "Oh dear, here he goes again."

"I was sprocket, because I was an Engineer, get it?"

Glaive nodded "I see sir; your daughter must've inherited your skills then?"

He nodded, smiling. "Of course Gaige sometimes outshines her old man, don't you honey?"

Gaige blushed, "Dad."

"Oh honey I haven't embarrassed you in months, I'm going to make up for all that lost time."

The cabin erupted in laughter as everyone laughed at her Dad's statement.

"Alright, jumping into hyperspace in three, two, and one" called out Talon. Gaige felt the craft accelerate and the black void of space become the blue hued alternate dimension of Hyperspace.

Her father looked out of the view screen in shock, "What. The. Hell?"

"Calm down Dad, it's a method of faster than light travel."

"Whoa, hold on now. I've never heard of it before."

A voice in her earpiece caught her attention, "Listen, I don't want to explain the whole 'from another galaxy' thing, can we avoid any further conversations about our tech till we reach Sanctuary?" She nodded.

Soon enough they reached Pandora. "Coming out of Hyperspace in three, two and one." The Gunship returned to normal space and flew toward Pandora. Ahead of them lay the colossal form of the _Guardian_. Gaige's parents both ran up to the view screen, "Whoa, that thing is huge!" observed her mother, classic British understatement or something like that. After all her mother was British.

**A/N: Gaige's parents are a reference to two characters in a certain TV show. If you guys want hints, he is an engineer and she is a biologist in the Fic and also in the show.**

The gunship flew past the gargantuan dreadnought prompting part of its arrow shaped fighter screen to peel off and surround the gunship. The voice of the pilot could be heard on the cabin speakers, "Blackout lead to Aurek 1-1, Admiral Kote is waiting in Sanctuary. Vault Hunter, was your mission successful?"

"Uh, yeah, I got my parents."

"Congratulations then, your parents should be proud."

Both her parents were smiling, "Of course we are."

"Alright, Aurek 1-1, move into formation for escort."

The gunship flew toward Sanctuary under escort by the Republic Fighters. As they neared the city Gaige's parents began to get excited again, it was all a marvel for them. Gaige watched as the anti-air turrets turned to track them but then lowered once their transponder code resolved. The gunship touched down onto the landing pad. "Alright ladies and gentlemen, it's been a pleasure flying with you. I hope that you enjoyed the flight and that you will fly with us again."

Gaige shook her head as they stepped out onto the landing pad, that Talon was such a character. Her parents stepped out, retrieving their guns on their way. She watched as a Crimson Raider Deck Officer walked over to them and saluted, "This way please." Gaige walked onward in front of her she could see several figures. With some Clone Troopers in tow Tracyn, Zer0 and Athena were leading some Hyperion soldiers and what looked to be a Hyperion Scientist toward the brig.

As they neared closer Gaige could hear the conversation, "But I'm innocent, I swear!" screamed the scientist.

Tracyn shoved him in the back with his rifle, "That's what they all say, keep moving scum."

"But I have a family," pleaded the scientist. Before Tracyn could reply one of the soldiers, cut through his handcuffs and raised his gun. Tracyn put a bolt in his brain, but not before another cut himself free as well and fired a round at him. His shields caught the round and he was about to shoot him when Zer0's blade killed that soldier and the one next to him, even though the latter hadn't even freed himself.

Gaige's parents looked horrified. But Gaige called over her friends, "Tracyn, Zer0, Athena, I'm back!"

Tracyn turned around and the three of them walked over "Gaige, I see that you succeeded." He turned toward Gaige's parents "You must be Gaige's parents, nice to meet you. Commander Tracyn Verda, at your service." He said extending his head, which her mother accepted, despite her jaw having dropped.

Zer0 walked over, "I am Zer0 / it is very nice to meet / you, how was your flight?"

Gaige nudged him "Missed a syllable there Z, nervous?"

Zer0 nodded, "Very."

Her father stepped forward, "Is that right son?"

Zer0 nodded again, "Then we're going to get along perfectly fine." He said extending his hand.

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Till next time…**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**Zer0's Perspective**

"Absolutely not!" said Gaige's mother, walking up toward them. Zer0 wondered what had upset her. Yes, he had just brutally murdered three men in front of her very eyes, but they were Hyperion and hence were the enemy. He had gotten off to a good start with Gaige's father; he really had hoped to get off to a good start with her mother as well.

"There will be no proper introductions made until after we've all had a shower and had something decent to eat. Then I want a drink, and then we can talk. I don't want to make a bad impression on Gaige's first boyfriend."

Zer0 breathed a sigh of relief, after all that could have gone far worse. He wasn't exactly the type of person that people liked after their first meeting with him. Gaige's father let out a small chuckle, "Of course dear."

Tracyn decided to step in, "You must be Gaige's parents. Commander Tracyn Verda, we spoke earlier sir?"

Gaige's father nodded, "Of course, I must commend you commander; your men did a fine job. Are all of your soldiers like this?"

Zer0 smiled as he saw Glaive and Scythe giving Tracyn looks; after all while they were lieutenants they were still not under Tracyn's command. Tracyn shook his head, "Glaive and Scythe are some of the best men that I have had the pleasure of serving with sir, I knew that they were the perfect men for the job. I'm glad to see that you got along. Shall we head toward the apartment, I'm sure that you wouldn't mind using your daughter's room to freshen up until more permanent arrangements can be made."

Gaige was shaking her head and waving her hands, trying to sign to Tracyn to not finish his statement. She dropped her hands in defeat when he did, obviously annoyed. Gaige's mother seemed calmed by this idea, "That's a splendid idea, lead the way."

Zer0 smiled and walked over to where Gaige was standing. They began walking to the Vault Hunter's apartment. They reached the apartment; the two Crimson Raiders on duty shot a salute at all three of them. "Vault Hunters" said one of the Raiders, a PX-15A Plasma Rifle in his hand.

He held the door of the elevator open and gestured toward the interior, "After you." Gaige, her parents, Athena and Tracyn stepped in. He joined them and Tracyn hit the button that would take them to their apartment. The "turbo lift" as Tracyn, Blitz and the other Republic personnel called it ascended with an electronic whine toward their apartment. Within a fraction of a second and without even feeling the acceleration they reached the newly renovated and larger apartment that they all shared.

Instead of the partially decrepit common area that they normally stepped into they stepped into an apartment that looked like it would rival some of the fanciest penthouses on Eden-4. He would know; he had been into several of them, without the owner's permission of course.

There was a large holoscreen, large couches, polished walls, beautiful light fixtures; in truth it made his slightly uncomfortable. Gaige, Maya and Salvador could not get enough of it, but Athena, Axton, Blitz, Tracyn and him felt a little uncomfortable. He for one was not used to the comfort afforded to them by this apartment.

"This is a lovely apartment, here I thought that my daughter would be living in a squalor" said Gaige's mother.

Just then a man sized robot walked toward them, Zer0 could see a large rifle on its back "Vault Hunters, I see that you are back from your travels, how may I be of assistance?" Gaige's parents did a double take, reaching for their weapons. "Do not be alarmed, I am J33V35 – BX Series droid, designed for Infiltration and Commando operations, serving as Butler to the Vault Hunters." Zer0 smiled when he remembered the reason this droid was their butler, this particular unit had assisted bounty hunter Cad Bane in boarding Admiral Kote's ship a while ago.

Gaige nodded, "Thank you Jeeves, we don't need anything for now. We're going to meet Admiral Kote."

"Of course Vault Hunter – Gaige, I will return to my duties."

Gaige's dad whistled, "Wow, you have a robot commando for a butler, you must be living out your dream kiddo."

Gaige smiled, "For the most part dad." Zer0 nodded as he remembered all that had happened to them on their journey so far. Gaige gestured toward her room, "Mom, Dad come on in." Her parents walked off in the direction of her room.

"Gaige, this room is a mess! There are parts everywhere!" he could hear her mother screaming. Zer0 smiled to himself, parents would always be parents. Soon enough her parents walked out in fresh clothes and fitted in what they called, "Pandora Gear" which consisted off an armored vest, plated gloves and forearm covering, and armored knee and elbow pads. Zer0 could see a shield generator attached to the back of their armored vest.

Gaige's mother reigned in a stray strand of hair and turned toward him, "Now I think introductions are in order."

Gaige nodded, "Shall we sit down?" she said as she motioned toward the couches. They all took a seat, Gaige sat on one of the single seater couches between the two multi seat couches. Her parents sat on one and Tracyn, Athena and he sat on. Tracyn and Athena removed their helmets. As they did, Zer0 noticed a strand of hair sticking to Athena's face, as did Tracyn.

Tracyn reached forward, "Got a bit of helmet hair there cyar'ika." He tucked it behind her ear, causing her to smile.

Gaige's parents smiled, "Ah, young love. I had an inkling of a feeling that the two of you were together" said her mother."

Gaige rolled her eyes, "Mom…"

Tracyn shrugged, "It's alright; we're not ashamed. Besides Sharp figured it out, and your parents must be several times smarter than that di'kut."

Gaige laughed, snorting at the end "Oh yeah, that IS true."

Gaige's father looked slightly confused, "I'm guessing that means idiot or something?"

Gaige nodded, "Yeah, it does. Okay, so introductions…As you guys know, this is Tracyn. Tracyn's an Advanced Reconnaissance Commando in the Grand Army of the Republic. He's a trained pilot, close combat specialist and a marksman. He also makes this amazing cake that is a specialty from where he's from. He's also one of the most genuine guys I know. Anyways, this is Athena…"

Her father cut her off, "Wait, you mean Agent Athena, ex-Crimson Lance Assassin, and current Hyperion Agent?"

Athena's face became downcast, and he knew why. It was not the kind of reputation she wanted to precede her. Gaige sighed, "Dad, she's not a Hyperion Agent; we already went through this with her. She surrendered to us in the Hyperion city of Opportunity; we brought her and gave her to the original Vault Hunters to interrogate which I totally walked in on."

"Gaige honey, are you okay?" asked her father.

"Oh calm down dad, they didn't do anything to her, I just saw Roland standing next to her awkwardly with one hand on a piece of tape attached to her face."

Athena blushed, "Yes, that was an awkward moment."

Gaige nodded, "Anyways she's beyond reproach Dad."

"I don't know Gaige, she killed the Undersecretary."

"I assure you…" started Athena.

"Let me handle this, Dad sometimes forgets that just because Dahl treated him well doesn't mean they treated everyone well. Dad, she's been shot and tortured by Hyperion for us, if that doesn't prove her loyalty to us for you then nothing will" said Gaige, giving her dad a look.

Zer0 watched as Athena absentmindedly touched her arm. Gaige's mother touched her husband on the shoulder, "Dear I think that you owe her an apology."

"I'm sorry Agent…"

Athena cut him off, "Its Athena" she mumbled.

No hearing what she said he asked her to repeat what she had said, "It's just Athena. I'm not feeling very well; if it's alright with you I'll take my leave now. It was lovely meeting the both of you." Zer0 watched as she got up and headed in the direction of the exit.

**Tracyn's Perspective**

Tracyn got up and followed Athena, stopping for a moment and turning toward Gaige and her parents "Sorry, she still has relapses of…when it happened. I had better go calm her down." As he turned around to head to the elevator the doors shut in his face. He cursed, hitting the button until it beep and the doors opened revealing an empty elevator. He stepped inside and hit the button, sending him to ground level. The doors opened and he stepped out into the lobby looking from left to right, hoping to find her before she did something stupid.

One of the Raiders saw him looking and pointed him in the direction of one of the landing pads, "If you're looking for Agent Athena she was heading for the landing pads sir." He nodded and jogged out of the building. He looked on the floor and saw a discarded helmet on the way; Athena's helmet. He bent down and picked it up, clipping it to his belt. He ran onward and saw two discarded Westar M8 PDWs on the floor. Bending down, he picked up these as well.

He ran on now nearing the landing pads, he could see discarded plating, forearm, gauntlets, chest, shoulder, power pack, holsters. He began to worry, what was she doing? This wasn't like her; he hadn't seen this side of her before and he wasn't' sure what to think of it. He ran forward onto one of the landing pads where a small collection of Clone Troops and Raiders had collected, looking at something. He pushed past them and saw on the landing pad a discarded sword and shield and a short distance in front of them Athena on her knees, head in her hands.

He turned to the Raiders and Clones gathered behind him, "Back off, there's nothing to see here."

The Clones began to walk away but one of the Raiders began to argue, "But sir…" He turned his head slightly, "I said back off!" The Raider and the other three Raiders with him began walking away too now.

He walked onto the landing pad, "Athena?"

"You know what day today is?"

"No, I don't. Do you want to tell me?"

"Today marks the first year anniversary of my sister's death."

"It's been one year? I'm so sorry."

"Don't be, it's not your fault."

He held up her helmet, "What happened?"

"I'm so sick of being 'Agent Athena', angel of death. My sister died because of it, she died because of it."

"You mean Ms. Springs don't you?" Athena simply nodded.

"It's none of my business but were you two…"

"No…I mean she did try, but we were just friends. Even then I was Agent Athena, but she insisted on calling me just Athena."

"Why'd you drop the plating?"

"She never liked me wearing armor, said it made me look too serious, that I needed to lighten up. I never understood, I still don't…but I'm sure of one thing, I'm done being Agent Athena."

He walked over to her and gave her a hug, patting her back, "It's alright, I understand." Athena took a breath in. As he looked up, still embracing her he saw ARC Squad 14 walking up toward them, he raised his hand, prompting them to stop.

"Thank you" was all she let out. Then after taking a breath she spoke again, "Listen, I need to do something, do you mind coming with me?"

"Of course not cyar'ika" he said, giving her his best smile.

"You want some help collecting your armor cyar'ika?" he said noticing that the top half of her armor was not there.

"Leave it there; if someone wants to shoot me when I'm grieving then so be it." He nodded to Sharp who nodded back and got on his wrist comm signaling his squad to move forward.

_**Guardian, **_**Interrogation Room**

"Just let me die, please!" screamed Handsome Jack. Agent Deviss looked at the bleeding man that the medics were healing up so that she could go at him again.

"They won't listen to you, you killed their friends" she said.

"They died in the line of duty! This is torture!" he screamed.

"You're part of corporation; you don't apply to those rules. Besides even if you did, we're not from around here."

"What have I done to you or your precious Republic?" he begged.

"What you did to Tracyn's men, to Tracyn himself, to Agent Athena to Mr. Wilhelm to countless others. You are going to pay for all of that, and if you give me what I want then so be it, I will let you die."

**Tracyn's Perspective**

Tracyn looked at the stones in front of them; "Jess – A Sister" and "Jannie – A Friend". Athena was on her knees. Arrayed behind them, watching the area was Squad 14. "Hey there sis, it's been a year now. A while since we've talked, huh? I killed them, our sisters; it didn't feel like I thought it would. It didn't feel like it should have. Anyway; Atlas is long gone. I miss you so much, I'll be here same time next year."

"You can take all the time you want cyar'ika…"

"I know; I just don't know what else to say…"

He could hear Data's voice over private squad com "Actually, can we go home now?"

"Data shut the kriff up, and get back to watching the perimeter."

"Commander, back me up on this."

"Tracyn is right you di'kut (idiot), get back to watching the perimeter."

"Just you know what you've been doing. Does that sound good?"

"I'm not sure that she'll approve."

"Sometimes it's best not to say anything." She nodded, continuing to kneel in the dirt.

**Zer0's Perspective**

Zer0 looked awkwardly at Gaige's parents, Zer0 himself would never forget this day. It was the day that Atlas had issued the kill order on Athena, they day her sister died. He had hoped that nothing would trigger her off, but hearing the radio transmissions in his helmet he knew that it wasn't a great situation. Right now Gaige and her mother were berating her father for what happened. He knew that things were getting heated. Anyways, he had to do something about it.

"Ahem, I think that Tracyn / has the situation handled / we should remain calm."

"Good point, Z. At least one of us has their head screwed on right."

"Come on dear, what was I supposed to say?"

"You were supposed to mind your own business Dad, some my friends have had hard lives. Athena is no exception and the recent years have been particularly rough on her."

"Gaige it is alright / Athena can handle herself / your father is sorry."

Gaige's Dad subtly nodded at him, "Thanks son."

"No problem."

"So Zer0 how did you and Gaige get together?" her mother asked.

Gaige blushed, "It's actually a funny story mom, so we were fighting this huge bandit guy. He snuck up behind me and Zer0 got in the way. He sent poor Z flying across the battlefield and Tracyn killed the guy with his fancy rifle, which was fixed by yours truly."

"Nice job sweetheart!" said her Dad, pride apparent in his eyes.

Gaige smiled back, "Thanks Dad! Anyways, we were on a boat to Sanctuary and I was fixing Zer0's arm."

Her mother frowned, "Hold on just a minute; what did you mean by 'fix'?"

"Well, I, um…" Zer0 wanted to scream, how had she in the span of five minutes have to force him to reveal his secret? He pulled off his gauntlet displaying a matte black metallic hand.

Gaige's mother gasped, "Oh my…Those aren't prosthetics…Those are…"

He finished the sentence, "Replacements."

She looked at him with shock, "Why?"

"Not my choice," he replied.

Gaige waved her hand in front of her mother's face, "Earth to Mom, can we please stop making people uncomfortable? Geez, if I didn't know otherwise I could have sworn that you two are intelligence agents. Moving on, when I was fixing Zer0's arm, Tracyn walks in and after a bit of denial from the both of us asks us why we're ignoring what's plainly obvious to him. Eventually we went on our first date, got Pizza and figured out that we both play SBtNR."

Gaige's mom was now smiling; before she turned to Gaige she mouthed a small 'sorry' to him. He flashed a smiley on his visor. "That's a lovely story dear, we are so happy to see you with somebody."

"Thanks mom, here I thought that you guys wouldn't approve."

"Oh dear, a month ago we wouldn't have. But with all this running we realized that some of these standards that we set are just lies that we tell ourselves to make us think that we are better than others."

Gaige's father turned toward him, "That being said son, if you break my daughter's heart I will kill you."

Gaige whined, "Dad…"

**Dahl Military HQ, Military Tribunal of Captain Major Sarah Harding**

Sarah looked at everyone in the court room. She knew that there was no escape from this. There was no way that she could talk her way out of this one and there was no one to help her, like she had helped him.

"Captain Harding, this court finds you guilty in the aiding and abetting of former Sergeant Axton McCollum as well as the sabotage of Dahl Military Transport Theta 2-1. How plead you?"

She gave them a sneer, "It doesn't matter how I plead, does it? This court has already made up its mind."

"Don't be a fool Captain; I suggest that you take our offer."

"All things said and done, respectfully sir, I'll decline."

"Very well then, Captain Harding you are hereby sentenced to be shot at dawn tomorrow. May god have mercy on your soul."

**Tracyn's Perspective**

Tracyn looked at Athena sleeping in front of him, Athena had decided that she wanted to sleep in the village. ARC Squad 14 had left, leaving them alone in the ruins of the village. Honestly he had hoped that they had left some turrets or motion trackers but Athena had said that the area had been and was almost devoid of bandits. He however didn't trust bandits to not pop up at the most inopportune timings and so was sleeping in his armor.

It was an oddly warm night, not the he minded his armor was temperature controlled after all. However he noticed a thin layer of sweat forming on Athena's arms and neck. He was glad that they had at least a Republic Field tent to sleep under. Unfortunately for Athena it wasn't temperature controlled, all Republic Personnel had temperature controlled armor. He eyed the scarf in the pile of discarded weapons in the corner. Even if he wanted to sleep with his rifle by his side, he couldn't there really was not that much space.

He could see the moon of Pandora in the distance, from here it hardly looked very eventful. From what he heard from Athena and from the report that he later read on her ECHO unit, it was a strange and crazy place. It might be prudent for them to assault Elpis after they had kicked Hyperion off planet, just to make sure that they had fewer things in the area that wanted to kill them. He found himself drifting off to sleep.

Tracyn was woken up by a jarring impact with his helmet. He opened his eyes and waited a brief second for his display to initialize when it did he instinctively reach for his holster but unable to move his hand. He looked around and saw several bandits. "Good morning Tracyn." He looked to his left and saw Athena hanging by her wrists from a horizontal metal bar. Looking around he realized that they were right in the middle of a bandit camp.

He turned to Athena "Why is it when I hang around you, we both end up tied up?"

"Oh so this is my fault now?"

"It's just a question cyar'ika."

"Just a question…" she was cut off by a bandit.

"Shut up!" he screamed.

"Hey, we're trying to have a conversation here scumbag" he said, sneering at the bandit who remarkably took a step back.

"I don't know but according to Gaige there's a fetish for everything."

"I'm sorry, a what? I'm beginning to lose my faith in humanity."

The bandit stepped forward, "Hey, this isn't that kind of thing! We just want to ransom you Vault Hunters to Hyperion."

"Haven't you heard smartass, Hyperion isn't the top dog around anymore."

"Maybe, but you're still here aren't you?" said the Marauder as he walked toward them putting his hand on Athena's chin. "Maybe I'll even keep this one for myself…" Athena delivered a vicious head-butt, breaking the bandit's nose, swinging forward with the momentum. Tracyn smiled underneath his helmet.

Athena scowled at him, "Careful what you wish for now." The bandit reached out with his knife, holding it against Athena's neck.

"You pull that knife out, you better be prepared to use it" she threatened. The bandit raised his hand, preparing to bring it down when he cut in.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

The bandit walked over to him, "Any why's that lover boy?"

That really got him annoyed, "The last person who called me that never lived to tell the tale, and now, neither are you." He activated one of his plasma casters, tearing through the ropes in less than a second. He dropped to the floor cutting Athena free as well. He turned to his side and saw their weapons on the floor next to them, who was that stupid to leave their weapons right next to them? After thinking about the question for a moment he realized that the answer was obvious.

He flung Athena's Westar M8 PDWs to her as well as her Aspis. They had left Xiphos on Sanctuary, which in his opinion was a pity; this was a close-quarters fight. Athena put on of the M8s away and activated her Kinetic Aspis, absorbing gunfire from all sources. He leisurely picked off bandits with his rifle. The first wave of psychos and marauders were all cut to pieces. Athena sprayed bursts of her M8 PDW into bandits, while he removed their heads by way of disruptor bolts with surgical precision.

Athena saw a Nomad approaching and flung her shield at him, shattering his ribcage in and collapsing his lung on impact. The shield flew back into her waiting hands. Now there were only two remaining Bandits, the one that had spoken to them and another Marauder. He raised his rifle and in a heartbeat put a blaster bolt in both their heads. They dropped to the floor dead. He turned to his and saw Athena massaging her wrists. He put his hand on her shoulder, "Come on cyar'ika, I've had enough of camping for one day.

**That's it for now, till next time guys…**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

**Gaige's Perspective**

It had been a day since her parent's had moved into Sanctuary. They had needed the evening to process what Admiral Nyles had told them. However they soon came to terms with it. "Great guy" was what her father had said about him. Her mother had noted the similarity between her and the good Admiral, especially their choice in romantic interests. If Gaige thought about it, she would have to agree, they did seem to have the same type.

Gaige had visited them; they had a small house close to the apartment that she shared with the rest of the Vault Hunters. Gaige after worrying about Tracyn and Athena had seen them walking from the landing pad in the morning toward the apartment laughing and poking jokes at each other. Gaige had noticed that Athena was missing the entire top half of her armor and while she was concerned she didn't want to ask about it.

Right now she was sitting in her room sifting through some of the old Atlas files that they had taken from Hyperion during their "visit" to Sanctuary. She was sifting through personnel files and had come across a hilarious record of an "Admiral Mikey's re-election campaign". Gaige was having a hard time not falling off of her chair with laughter. In all honesty it was probably some of the most hilarious things she had heard people try and do.

What caught her attention was an extensive file marked "Lance Assassins". Gaige opened the file, reading the foreword to the report by the head researcher, a "Joseph Fryers". They had a Hyperion scientist named Daniel Fryers in custody, Gaige wondered if they were related. A particular phrase caught her attention, "created in response to the SPARTAN project started by the UNSC." Gaige had heard of the UNSC, the colonial administration that "protected" the inner-colonies and Earth. Of course the inner-colonies that they protected were practically on Earth's doorstep. They didn't care about backwater planets like the one she came from or Pandora. This whole sector was left to the devices of the various corporations that thrived on the alien ruins in the area. She doubted that they even knew what was going on in these regions.

She remembered what Athena had told Tracyn and looked for any and all references to clones. There were only few and all refer to documents that were purposely leaked. Gaige decided to look further, if they weren't cloned then where did all these candidates come from? She knew that it was a wise move to let the public and the other corporations think they were clones; there weren't many who objected to cloning or many who were fighting for clone's rights. She continued looking through the file until her heart stopped; the candidates were all kidnapped, stolen from their homes. Apparently the UNSC had taken a similar route with their SPARTAN program. Gaige found a video embedded in the file, the name of the file – Candidate Athena.

Gaige played the video; it showed a very frightened Athena holding a handgun. She was aiming them at two people; a man and a woman. She could hear their frantic cries, "Sweetie, put the gun down! It's us, Mom and Dad!"

"Follow your orders Agent, do as you are told!" ordered an off screen voice. Gaige watched with horror as the young Athena leveled the weapon and discharged it twice. Gaige felt sick, was that what had happened. She kinda wished that Athena was really a clone. Gaige got up to go and find her when her screen flashed with an alert. She had tapped into communications of all major corporations now, thanks to the Republic's Long Range communications array. There was the execution of a Captain Sarah Harding stated to happen tomorrow. Gaige wondered why she would receive an alert about that when she realized who Captain Harding was; she was Axton's ex-wife.

Gaige cursed, couldn't things stay calm, why did everything have to be so complicated? She picked up her stuff and ran out into the living room. Finding no one there she decided to head toward the HQ. Inside she found all of the other hunters assembled. Maya turned and smiled, "Oh Gaige, we we're just going to get you. Dr. Tannis has found something that could be a big problem."

"What is it Maya?" she asked walking over and looking at the holotable. Displayed was a large thresher, the name reading Terramorphous the Invincible.

"Whoa, that is one big Thresher!" she said.

Tracyn turned around, "Yes, that is, isn't it?"

Blitz smiled, "That's why we're bringing some extra firepower along." He stepped to the side to reveal Squad 14.

"Not that you guys need the help, but Admiral Nyles knew that we'd be bored so he let us come with you to kill things" said Data.

"Always fun to have you guys along for the ride!" she said.

Lilith cleared her throat, "Alright guys go and get this done."

Gaige was wondering where Roland was, "Hey Lil, where's Roland?"

"Roland's talking with Admiral Nyles about the naval situation, whether he plans to leave any ships here."

Gaige nodded and they all walked toward the Landing Pad, she saw Athena and Axton and was wondering whether to tell them now, or tell them later. Gaige frowned when she saw the scarf that Athena was wearing over her helmet. It had to be hot enough in that suit. They stepped into the gunship and took off toward a Thousand Cuts. Gaige watched as the doors shut. Axton smiled at her, "So Gaige, your parent seem cool. I mean, had you told me your parents were Mr. and Mrs. Reed, I would have like had like unlimited respect for you."

"I guess I wanted to earn that respect, besides I never thought that you'd know them Axton."

"Are you kidding, your Dad was Sarah's old CO."

"Oh, small world, huh?" she said, shrugging. She really needed to remember to tell him after the fight.

Axton nodded, "Yeah, small world." Gaige could feel the gunship lowering altitude, she looked out of the viewport and she saw a huge clearing in front of them. She watched as Talon brought the gunship in and set it down. "Alright, according to Tannis we have to use the horn at the far end to summon Terramorphous."

Tracyn watched as Deadeye ran off in the direction of the horn, "I've got this." Deadeye soon reached the horn, activating it. Everyone readied their weapons. A short moment later a giant thresher emerged from the ground in front of them.

"Whoa, that is a big Thresher, exclaimed Data" pummeling the creature with twin Westar M8 PDWs.

"Well, its name _is _Terramorphous the Invincible. People don't often name Threshers" reminded Maya, blazing away with her Maliwan SMG.

Gaige found herself mesmerized light given off by the electromagnetic plasma and disruptor bolts flying at the Thresher. Terramorphous wasn't exactly enjoying the whole affair either. Despite the creature's tough hide the bolts were tearing right through it. It dived down into the ground.

"Squad 14, check your scanners, everyone stick together, don't let this thing separate you!" called out Commander Sharp as he scanned the area with his DX-16 Disruptor Rifle.

Gaige watched suddenly as tentacles burst out from the ground. She watched as rocks and fireballs were thrown at them by the tentacles. The team dived out of the way and returned fire, downing the tentacles with ease. Gaige wasn't so surprised that they were kicking its ass; there were fourteen of them after all. Terramorphous poked his ugly head out once more and they replied with a crippling barrage of gunfire that tore chunks of flesh off.

Their assault was accompanied by the gunship. Gaige shrugged, that Talon couldn't just stay and observe, could he? He had to be a part of everything. The combined fire left almost nothing of Terramorphous, part of its head and a short length of its body was all that remained. Of course that was a testament to the creature, according to Republic Troops, disruptors rarely left a trace of their victim.

She watched as Athena walked over to what was left of the body. She walked up and joined her friend. "Poor old Terry" said the ex-assassin, raising her visor.

"Terry? You know this Thresher?" she asked, very confused.

"Uh sure, Hammerlock paid us a when I was on Elpis to smuggle two Threshers for him. He named this one Terry. Apparently Terry survived to be quite a pain in the ass" she said nodding.

Gaige nodded, "That he did, that he did. So where'd you and Tracyn go?" she asked.

Tracyn walked up Athena and put a hand on her shoulder, "We went camping, and then engaged in the calming activity of wiping bandits off the face of this planet in the morning."

Gaige shook her head, "You two just can't stay out of trouble can you?"

"Trouble just seems to find us, and I wouldn't have it any other way" said Athena.

"There go my plans of settling down."

Gaige just shook her head as she walked away from the corpse of the not so invincible Terramorphous and toward the waiting gunship, Tracyn and Athena in tow. Soon they landed at Sanctuary and Gaige decided to get Athena's attention as she saw her walking back toward their apartments. "Athena, you have a moment?"

"Always, what do you want to talk about Gaige?"

"Maybe we should head to Moxxi's then."

"That kind of conversation then?" she asked, removing her helmet.

"You have no idea."

Gaige walked toward the bar, on their way Gaige passed her parents on their morning walk around the city. "Morning Gaige" said her father, stopping. He turned and saw Athena behind Gaige, "I just wanted to apologize again Athena; I didn't mean to insult you."

Gaige braced for the fireworks that she was almost sure would go off, but turned toward Athena when they didn't. "Not to worry, I took a very relaxing camping trip and feel a lot better now." Gaige rolled her eyes as she remembered Tracyn's description of the 'Camping Trip'.

Her mother shrugged, "Good for you! We all deserve a break once in a while."

"Well Athena and I are off to Moxxi's."

"This early?" asked her father.

"Yup, breakfast."

"Oh, alright honey. Bye Gaige, bye Athena."

They walked into the bar, earning a wink from Moxxi as they walked over to a quieter booth. As they sat down Gaige noticed that Moxxi herself came over, not one of the servers. "Hey sugars, what can I get you?"

"Nothing yet Moxxi, thanks." She wasn't sure what exactly how Athena would feel after hearing what she had to say.

Athena adjusted her position until she was more comfortable in her seat. "So Gaige, what was it you wanted to talk about."

"I wanted to talk about the Lance Assassin program."

"What about it?"

"Well, for starters, what exactly do you know about it?"

"Well, we're all clones of different people. They made us do horrible things as children, things I can never forget."

"I have to correct you there, you're not clones."

"What do you mean, where did you find this information?"

"Straight from the source, from Atlas documents that we stole from Hyperion."

"What did they say?" she asked, leaning in.

"Well, they said that they kidnapped you from your families and…"

"And?" she asked, frowning.

"I don't know if I should burden you with…"

"NO! Tell me; not telling me is burdening both you _and_ me!"

"They forced you to murder your parents."

"So those were…my parents? I thought that they were lying, that it was all part of the test…" said Athena, eyes widening.

"It gets worse…"

"Jess is your biological sister. The reason that they dropped her from the program was that she couldn't kill your parents. They left her on Pandora in hopes that she would die. When Atlas found out that she was indeed alive…"

"They sent my team after her." Athena brought her fist down on the table hard; then just dropped her head into her hands.

"This shouldn't change anything, but it does."

"Of course it changes things; the bastards made you kill your own parents. You watched your own sister die, and you were forced to kill people that you grew up with."

Gaige could see her eyes filling up, spilling over her eyelid a moment later. "Why, why me: first Atlas and then Hyperion! Why can't the world just leave me alone?"

Gaige regretted telling her now, she put her hand on Athena's shoulder plate "Look, I really didn't want to tell you. But…"

"It's not your fault, living a lie would have been worse. I feel bad for lying…"

"For lying to Tracyn; well, he likes you for who you are Athena. It never mattered to him whether you were a clone or not. Look you have enough to worry about, don't worry about T. He loves you regardless."

"What do I do Gaige? My parents, my sister they're dead all because of me! Janey, she's dead because of me! My team, they're also dead because of me! They're all gone."

"No, that's Atlas, and Hyperion. They made you kill your parents, they forced you to kill your team and they killed your sister. Nisha murdered Janey, murdered her for no reason."

"If I hadn't gone looking for her, Atlas would never have known about her!"

Gaige placed her hands firmly on her friend's shoulders, "Listen, none of that is your fault. I didn't tell you this for you to break, I told you this so that you know that despite these people, despite leading a difficult life, you are no worse for the wear. You are still a great person, not broken and in one piece. What Tracyn said be damned. Just think about it, look how far you've come, despite what they tried to mold you into you've become someone noble, a great friend, someone who stands for what is right. Forget about it."

Athena sniffled, wiping away a tear "Thank you Gaige, what do you do when you're upset?"

Gaige smiled, "Come on, I have just the thing for you." She took hold of Athena's hand and led her out of Moxxi's and toward a house near the apartment. The display near the mailbox read "Reed". She walked over to the door and rang the bell. The door slid open and there stood her father "Hey Dad, Athena here just got some really bad news. Any chance you can make her one of your 'pick me up breakfasts'?"

A few moments later both she and Athena were sitting at the table in her parents' house. In front of them were two mugs of hot cocoa, one for her and one for Athena. Athena picked up the mug of hot cocoa slowly "So by drinking a mug of hot cocoa, I'm supposed to feel better?"

Her father answered while frying something in a pan, "Of course. By the way, how do you like your eggs Athena?"

She looked away from the cup and into the kitchen, "Scrambled please." Gaige then watched as Athena lifted the cup to her lips, taking a sip. "Where has this been all my life?"

She heard her father reply, "Told ya!"

"I understand your fascination with Hot Cocoa now Gaige. I don't know why, but I feel better now."

"Don't think, just drink."

**An hour later**

Axton's Perspective

"Dammit Gaige, where did you find this information?" he asked Gaige, who was sitting in front of him on a chair in the Crimson Raider's HQ.

"Remember that system that Lilith and I set up? Well, with the new communications tech it picked this up."

"Hmmm" he said, he wondered how what Sarah could have possibly done to be sentenced to being executed. He debated asking Gaige to find out the reason, but what sense did that make? He owed her for telling about his fate. Sure he wasn't exactly happy that she ended their relationship then and there, but if was going to be honest; he would agree that it was over at that point. There was no way that either of them thought that they would see the other one again, in fact she had probably moved on. "Alright, I'm going" he said, standing up.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"What's it look like Gaige, I'm going to get her out of there!"

"But…Alright, let's go talk to Admiral Kote."

"No, you've done enough Gaige. This is something that I have to do."

"Alright, I won't try and stop you. Good luck Axton, I think you're going to need it."

"Thank you Gaige." With that he left her in the apartment and walked over to the elevator. As the elevator reached the ground the doors opened and he saw Salvador there.

"Amigo, where are you off to in such a hurry?"

"I'm going to see Admiral Kote about something that I need done."

"Alright, I'm coming with you amigo."

"Why?"

"You have that same estúpido look that you have on your face when you are going to do something estúpido."

"What stupid face?"

"That one, you're not going to get rid of me amigo. You might as well enjoy the ride."

"All right, fine."

"So what are we doing amigo, you look like you saw a ghost, or better yet, your ex-wife." He gave the Truxican a look. "Ooh! This is about your ex-wife!"

"Shut up, Sal."

They walked on toward the landing pad in silence there they could see both the pilots of gunship Aurek 1-1 sitting inside the troop bay, playing a card game of sorts. "Dammit, I can't believe it. We start getting paid and you start taking my money away from me."

"It's the nature of the game LT."

The pilots turned toward the landing platform, the one called Talon smiled and replaced his helmet "Lookie here, we've got Vault Hunters. No doubt we've been reduced to a shuttle service."

The other pilot looked at him, also replacing his helmet, "Well when we first got it, you did say that you could fly it till you died."

"I didn't mean…oh never mind. What can I do for you Axton?"

"I need to see Admiral Kote, now."

"Sure thing, we just flew up those two fine ladies, don't see why we can't fly you to."

Axon frowned, "What fine ladies?"

"Oh you know, Commander Tracyn's girlfriend – What was her name? Ah yes, Athena and Agent Deviss."

Axton and Salvador were about to board the gunship when Maya walked up toward them, "Where you boys headed?"

"We're going to rescue Axton's ex-wife, she is in big trouble."

"Axton's what? That's it, I'm coming too."

"No you're not; I need to do this Maya. She and I are done, but I still owe her one."

Maya stepped on and gave him a warm smile, "I know; that's why I'm coming too. To make sure that you can return the favor."

**Athena's Perspective**

Athena looked around the "Officer's Mess" on the Guardian. She thought back to when she was walking back to the apartment after eating breakfast at Gaige's parent's house. She saw that Republic Intelligence Agent, Deviss was it, walking in the direction of the headquarters. Or so she thought, "Athena, right? I've wanted to talk to you except I've been busy with that Handsome Asshole. I know this is extremely awkward but I was wondering if you would mind having a drink with me."

Athena shrugged, "I guess, I never got your name though."

"Helena. Most of my friends just call me Haley though."

They began walking to the gunship waiting on the landing pad "That's an oddly normal name."

Agent Deviss shrugged, "Huh?"

"Most of you have really…different names. Haley is quite a normal name I'm told."

"You're told?"

"Yeah, I haven't exactly led a normal life."

"So I heard." They neared the gunship and she saw the two pilots playing a card game of sorts.

As they saw Haley and her approaching they jumped to attention, "Agent Deviss, you require to be ferried back to the Guardian?"

"Yes Talon, at ease."

They stepped into the gunship and the doors began to close. "They almost seem afraid of you" said Athena.

"Someone in clone intelligence started calling me 'The Scalpel', after my reputation started preceding me. Ever since all GAR troops actually respect me, that wasn't fear, it was respect."

"Wow, that's something I can understand."

"I read the reports, T-Bone Junction, Atlas occupation of Pandora and what came after."

"Did you read the reports on the program?"

"Yes."

"Then you know what they did to me?"

"I know."

"Thank you."

"For what?" asked Agent Deviss looking confused.

"For not judging me, it can't have been easy."

"My hands aren't exactly clean either. Besides, how can I return home without meeting this galaxy's equivalent of myself?"

Athena flashed back to the present; leaning back in the chair in front of her, hands locked behind her head was Agent Helena Deviss. Agent Deviss had a black tank top on instead of her usual stealth suit. She was nursing a "Corellian Brandy", while Athena herself was drinking a mug of Mandalorian Ale.

"Enjoying that Ale Athena?"

"Uh huh, must be nice, a place like this."

"Wasn't always like this. It was a while before Nyles and I were even on the same taskforce."

"How long have you known Nyles?"

"Known? Well, I've known him a while. We went through basic together before he split off for Naval Academy, the war made sure that all schools went through at basic. We met again during an experimental advanced training program; it involved a lot of live-fire and other more…consequential exercises. After a while the instructors just threw the candidates into teams and pit them against each other. I think Nyles told you that he was nearly crippled by an accident that he had." Athena watched as she pointed to a long line on her arm "Close Quarters combat, I got that defending one of my teammates. After that Nyles and I never even saw each other, I mean we were friends but nothing happened. Later during the war Nyles' battleship responded to my distress call, my cover had been blown and I had been captured by the local resistance. I was in no immediate danger, but I wasn't going to get out on my own. Nyles led the assault personally, slaughtered every last one of them. He was with me in the med bay every moment until I was back on my feet. Eventually, he asked me out, and frankly I didn't know why I didn't do so myself, earlier."

"It must've been a hard for him, breaking protocol."

"He told the Jedi to 'Shove it' and he was on the next gunship down."

"Wow."

"I know, but I'm not here to go on about me, what about you?"

"I'm quite alright, all things considered."

"How about you and Tracyn, how's that going?"

"It's going well, Tracyn wants to take a vacation sometime…Wants to go somewhere where we can relax, think about us."

"I'd invite you to Corellia, but there's a war going on where I'm from. Besides, Mandos aren't the most popular people back in our galaxy."

"But Tracyn said…"

"Mandos are a proud people; they'll be the last ones to admit that they need help, if they need it. I can't imagine how the war would have gone if the Republic didn't have the full backing of Jango Fett and his Mandalorians."

"Tracyn mentioned him a few times; does he live up to the legend?"

"And then some. I met him once or twice; he cares a lot for his people. He just went for the wedding of a Clone Commando and a Jedi. He cares a lot for his people. Who knows might even make the trip for the two of you. Don't break his heart Athena, they have little else."

"I would never even think of it…"

"I know, funny…We can actually sit down and have a drink, talk about boys…Pity we can't do it without our armor or weapons being within arms-reach or without facing the door."

"Somethings never change."

She saw Haley's lips twist into a smile, "Isn't that the truth…"

**Axton's Perspective**

"Let me guess, you need a ship?" said Admiral Nyles, the edges of his mouth tugging into a smile.

"How did you know?"

"Simple, you never visit otherwise."

"I suppose that is true, just don't feel at ease on a star ship."

"I can understand that, sometimes I feel like I need to have deck plating underneath my feet. What's the mission?"

Axton sighed; he'd have to tell the Admiral, there was no way that he was going to be able to get a ship otherwise. "I need to extract someone, from a Dahl military facility. We're going in hot, no option for stealth."

"Is that why you have a three man team?"

"I can't ask anyone to come with, its personal, these two are just more stubborn than I am."

"Alright then, however you underestimate the stealth capabilities of my gunships."

"You underestimate how well Dahl guards its facilities, thermal sensors, light disruption sensors, the works."

"That's child's play; they can handle it just fine. I will however send Lieutenant Razor with you; he needs to stretch his legs after they discharged him from the med bay."

"He was injured? I had no idea."

"Took a rocket for his squad, only reason he survived was because he overloaded his shield generator before impact. Special Operations Troopers are almost as good as Commandos."

"Alright, but I don't want to endanger anyone else, this isn't what they signed on for."

"They're Mandalorians; they are here to protect the Republic and its allies. Right now, you and your friends are part of that category."

"All right, thank you Admiral."

"K'oyacyi. (Stay Safe)"

Axton didn't know what that meant, but he nodded. He turned around and walked toward the Hangar. As they stepped in, he watched as a Grey-Black armored trooper jogged into the elevator, helmet in hand. He nodded to all of them, "Vault Hunter, Lieutenant Razor, Shadow Company."

"Good to have you Lieutenant. How're you feeling?"

"I'm at one hundred percent sir, and pissed off, just give me something to shoot." He pulled a PX-15A off of his back, a grenade launcher fixed to the underside of the weapon, as well as a medium range scope. The turbo lift reached the hangar bay and they walked out, toward where the Gunship they had come in on had dropped them off. He could see the two pilots turn toward them as they approached.

"Razor, it's good to see you back on your feet."

"Good to be on my feet Talon," said Razor as he placed his rifle onto his back.

"All right Talon, I've uploaded the coordinates." The Pilot tilted his head and seemed to stare at nothing and then turned toward them.

"Got it, all right get in and strap in." Axton complied and got it. Razor turned toward them as he strapped himself into one of the seats "So, what's our objective."

Salvador turned toward him, "We're going to rescue Axton's ex-wife."

He shot Salvador a look that caused the Truxican give him an apologetic smile. "Yes, she warned me when Dahl wanted to court martial me, I owe her the same."

Razor nodded, "I understand." Axton felt the gunship take off and fly out of the Hangar. He watched from the view screen as the gunship began to accelerate and suddenly the space around the ship turned blue, while he was in awe he couldn't help but wonder if they were going to get there in time. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"We're going to get her out of there" said Maya, giving him a sympathetic look.

"I don't know Maya…"

"What happened to the Axton that jumps into the midst of gunfire for his friends, the one who never has a plan but still pretends like he does and somehow leads his team to victory?"

"It's just, I don't know if I should have told her to come with me…"

"Axton, Sarah made her choice, this was her choice. What counts is that you're coming back despite what happened…She didn't need to leave you…There's no reason you should feel bad for moving on with your life."

"Sarah knew that we may never see each other again, knew that it would be easier to sell if we were no longer going to be engaged."

"Look Axton, Sarah knew that you would find someone else, if she doesn't understand then she was never worth it in the first place, besides stop talking like she's already dead. Stop your bellyaching commando."

"Thanks Maya, I needed that."

A while later he heard Talon announce that they had arrived, "Coming out of Hyperspace in three, two and one!" Axton felt the gunship decelerate, he looked at the Planet, where he had lived for a majority of his adult life.

Razor chuckled, "I know that look, it's the same one I have on my face when I see Kamino. Mandalore will always be my home, but I have too many memories on that pathetic planet to forget it."

"Heh, ain't that the truth."

"I doubt I would ever want to see Athenas ever again" said Maya, eyeing the planet through the view screen.

"Take us in Talon, full stealth. Head for facility east of the main barracks of the facility at the coordinates I gave you."

"You know where the execution is?"

"Yeah, I was once part of a firing detail myself. Executed some Vladof Agent, poor bastard was defiant to the end."

The entire gunship was silent was the craft flew toward the planet past huge Dahl cruisers and stations. Talon broke the silence, "Damn, the power output of those cruisers' weapons, they'd prove to be a problem for even some of our ships."

Axton smiled, "What that dreadnought of yours is like 17 kilometers long and bristling with weapons."

"What the _Guardian_? No, I meant that it might prove to be a problem for a Phalanx Assault Frigate." The cabin burst out in laughter. Axton watched as the gunship dropped below the cloud layer and so low that he could make out the leaves on the tress below them. The gunship sped on, he could see the Dahl HQ in the distance, towering over the landscape. Surface to air and Surface to Surface weapon emplacements swept the entire area, searching for any foolish enough to attempt an assault.

Razor whistled, "That looks like it might make this whole operation harder than I thought."

Salvador smiled and pulled out one of his DX-20 SAWs "That's fine, we have plenty of firepower amigos!" Maya nodded, retrieving her trusty Maliwan SMGs. Axton shook his head and watched as the gunship fly over the prison building and out toward the courtyard. He could see a figure in an orange prison jump suit tied to a pole at one end of the yard and at the other end a group of Dahl Commandos, rifles at their sides.

"Talon, take us toward the wall and drop us low." He began attaching himself to one of the fast rope handholds. He turned to Salvador, "The second I'm down you open fire on those guards. Talon, prepare to drop cloak on my mark." Razor began attaching himself to the fast rope system as well.

"Razor what are you doing?"

"Coming with you," he said.

"No, you stay here."

"There's no time to argue sir." He said as the gunship hovered in position, Axton could see the guards begin to raise their weapons. Axton nodded.

"Talon now!" he screamed as the bay doors opened and he hand Razor dropped down landing next to Sarah.

As he landed he could hear Salvador yelling, "TWO GUNS, B******!" He watched as purple disruptor bolts struck those guards who didn't dive for cover.

He nodded at Razor, who fired bursts at those guards who attempted to brave Salvador's deadly barrage. "Axton, is that really you?" asked Sarah, turning toward him.

"Yeah, it's me, in the flesh" he said, as he shot the cuffs securing her wrists and legs with his blaster rifle.

She rubbed her wrists, "What the hell are you thinking, I didn't go through all of this for you to come back here!" He chucked her his FA-3, which she caught and looked over.

"Sarah, not the time, besides I brought some friends!" Sarah turned toward Razor who was firing frantically at the increasing number of guards.

Razor suddenly ducked, "INCOMING!" He saw a rocket fly right at them but instead of blowing them into smithereens it impacted a blue barrier in front of them.

He could hear Maya's voice, "Hurry up you two; catch up later." Razor dragged them both to their feet.

"Sometimes I have no idea how she puts up with you" said Razor as he pulled them toward the gunship which was now descending into the courtyard amidst heavy small arms fire. They tumbled into the cockpit prompting Salvador to shut the bay doors behind them. Axton got to his feet, feeling the gunship lift off in a hurry. He got on the comm to Talon, "What's the hurry Talon?"

An explosion rocked the gunship slightly. "That's the hurry, Dahl just scrambled a squadron after us, and those SAMs aren't making my job any easier."

Sarah was looking all around the cabin, "Well, who knew that this mysterious force that occupied Pandora would be friendly? "

Razor became uneasy, his hand not leaving the grip of his rifle. She smiled, "Easy big guy, everyone heard about how bad Hyperion got their ass kicked. You guys are impressive."

Razor nodded, putting his hand by his side. Axton frowned, "What, no 'Thanks for saving me Axton' or 'Gee Axton, how have you been?'"

She smiled, "There's nothing that I can tell you that you already don't know." Well, there was one thing, "Sarah, I have to tell you something…"

She nodded, "It's alright Axton, I know…The way she looks at you…But it's alright, I'm happy for you. Drop me off on Eden-6, I can find my own way from there."

"Why not stay with us? Roland could do with some help, the Raiders need all the men they can get…or women."

"I don't know…It does seem better than being on the run. What if I don't fit in?"

"Come on, two Sirens, several ex-Lancemen, a walking Brick, a drunken Truxican sniper and his two deadly pet birds, two ex-Lance Assassins, a fugitive teenage engineer and her science project, a local, a mutant formerly crazy Lanceman, an extragalactic army and you won't fit in?

"An extragalactic what?" asked Sarah, shocked.

The entire cabin yelled out, "Axton!"

Axton winced and then shrugged weakly, "My bad."

**And that's the end of that. Hope you guys enjoyed that chapter and the various reveals, Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Till next time…**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

**Gaige's Perspective**

Gaige looked at the gear in her hand, word had got out of Axton's mission after Admiral Nyles contacted him to see if it was a success. Her dad had instantly decided to be at the landing pad to great his old squad mate. She had been tasked by Axton to recreate Sarah's gear, maybe even throw her own touches in there. She had done exactly that, looked over the Dahl armor schematics and thrown some of her own upgrades in there. She was brought out of her thoughts by the noise of an approaching gunship. Gaige could see scorch marks near the rear of the craft and wondered what sort of opposition they could have faced that would have caused that.

She watched as the gunship set down on the landing pad. The doors to the gunship opened with a hiss and out stepped Maya, Axton, Salvador, Lieutenant Razor and Axton's ex-wife – Sarah. Sarah saw her dad and snapped off a smart salute, "Captain Reed, it's good to see you again sir."

"At ease, I'm not a Captain anymore Sarah" he said, shaking her hand.

"Of course, although I technically used to outrank you a day ago. I made Major."

"I'm not surprised," he turned to her "Gaige, why don't you give ex-Major Harding her equipment."

She nodded, "Sure thing dad, I basically got you a new set of your Dahl gear with some modifications made by yours truly. Standard Dahl commando body armor with armored neck guard, now with integrated Republic Shield generator, the new surveyor docking port lets you use your surveyor as a jetpack if you want and last but not least Dahl Spec Ops helmet. Comes in Dahl puke brown unless you want it in another color."

**A/N: It's the Axton head customization Covert Ops**

Axton frowned, "Hey, where's my fancy upgraded gear?"

"Get in line, I've just finished Zer0, Athena and now Sarah."

Sarah laughed, putting on her gear and testing the surveyor jetpack "Thanks Gaige, this is great. You know, the last time I saw you, you were just a little girl. You've grown up."

"Gee Sarah, it's not like I'd stay a kid forever."

"Of course not. Thanks anyways, you guys know where I can get some guns?"

"Quite possibly the armory Major Harding, I'll walk you to it." Gaige turned around to see Tracyn and Blitz walking toward them.

"Commander Tracyn, I've heard so much about you."

"All good I assume."

"Of course – Axton never got very far but what he did say was all good."

Axton nodded, "Tracyn my boy, your secret's safe with me."

"What secret?" asked Tracyn

"Exactly."

Tracyn shook his head, and began walking in the direction of the armory. Gaige followed him, namely because she had a question – she couldn't see Athena anywhere and after the tough times she had to face, she began to worry that she might have done something stupid.

"Hey T," she said, catching up to him.

"Yes Gaige?"

"Have you see Athena?"

"No, I can't say I have. I thought that she was with you."

Gaige felt her concern for Athena's safety increase, just then however she heard the deep sound of a Republic bomber's engines. She looked up to see a Republic Neutralizer bomber streak overhead, slow and finally touch down in front of them skidding forward a few feet. The canopy slid open and out jumped Athena and Republic Agent Deviss. Gaige raised her eyebrows – that, she did not expect. When she thought about Athena doing something stupid, the last thing that she thought would happen was her getting drunk with Agent Deviss and going for a joyride in a Republic Bomber.

Athena stumbled as she attempted to walk forward, "Maybe that wasn't such a good idea."

Agent Deviss waved her hand dismissively, "What, the joyride or the several mugs of ale."

Athena put her hand on her lower back and arched backward, frowning. "Both."

Tracyn meanwhile was wondering what he had done wrong in the universe to deserve this. "Cyar'ika, while I'm glad that you took a little while to relax was it too much to ask for to not go for a joyride in a republic bomber?"

"Quit being such a baby Tracyn, it's not like we wrecked the bomber." Gaige looked at the portion in the deck that they landed on, there was a sizable dent where it had crashed into the deck. Just then the nose landing gear of the bomber collapsed. "Well, maybe not completely."

Just then she heard a voice over her ECHO, "Vault Hunters, did you perhaps see a bomber come your way? Perhaps also containing Agent Deviss and your friend Athena?"

Tracyn sighed, she heard his response over the ECHO. "Yes sir, they may have 'landed' the bomber at Sanctuary. They also seem slightly inebriated."

"Noted, I'm on my way down, just watch them till I get there to pick up Helena Tracyn."

"Yes sir. Gaige, take Major Harding to the armory, get her some weapons."

"You got it T, come on Sarah."

"Lead the way." With that they walked toward the armory.

"Sorry you had to see that, they're not usually like that."

Sarah nodded, "I can imagine. Athena's reputation precedes her, and that other woman screamed spook."

Gaige walked into the armory and she saw Lieutenant Rys inside. "Ah, Vault Hunter, how can I help you?"

Sarah stepped forward, "I need a rifle with good stopping power and range. A good magazine size is great too."

Rys smiled, "I'm not the usual armorer but I do know that the gun you're looking for is the Westar M7 accelerated plasma rifle, 40 round power pack, 750 meter range and can put a loader down in a three – five round burst." He picked up a medium sized angular rifle off of rack, followed by several power packs.

Sarah looked over the gun in her hands, before aiming down the smart linked sights, "Thanks Lieutenant, this will do just fine."

"Where to now Sarah?" she asked.

"I guess we'll go and see Roland."

Just then Gaige noticed both Clones and Raiders running in the direction of the HQ, armory and the hangars. She stopped one of them, "Trooper, where is everyone going?"

"Didn't you hear ma'am? We have unidentified ships in orbit, everyone is assuming battle stations!"

**Till next time…**


End file.
